HISTORICAL ORIGINS 

COMPRISING 

♦'THE CHALDEAN AND HEBREW AND THE CHINESE AND 
HINDOO ORIGINES." 

"THE ORIGIN OF THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATION OF THE 

NILE'S VALLEY:" 



HISTORICAL CRITIQUES 

> 

COMPRISING 

"A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE SCOTS OR 
GAELS/' ETC. 

"A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT 
EGYPT." 



■ 



BY 

ROBERT SHAW, M. A., 

AUTHOR OF 

"CREATOR AND COSMOS;" OF "COSMO-THEOLOGICAL DISCOURSES;" OF "THE 

HEBREW COSMOGONY;" OF "THE ORIGIN OF THE MOSAIC DISPENSATION, 

WITH REFLECTIONS UPON THE MIRACLES AND HEROES OF THE OLD 

TESTAMENT;" OF "AN INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY," 

WHICH EMBRACES AN ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS OF THE GOSPELS 

AND THE ACTS, SHOWING THEIR UNITY IN SEVERALTY; OF 

"PROPHECIES OF REVELATION AND DANIEL, DEVELOPED IN 

THE HISTORY OF CHRISTENDOM," WITH AN APPENDIX 

COMPLETE IN PROOF, AND A "CHAPTER UPON THE 

CYCLES OF THE ANCIENTS;" OF THE "ANCIENT 

COSMOTHEOLOGIES OF THE WORLD;" OF THE 

"PHOENICIAN COSMOGONIES," ETC., ETC. 



RE VISED. 



\^N* 



\ 



ST. LOUIS: 
BECKTOLD & COMPANY. 

1889. 






THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



Entered according to Act ot Congress, In the year 1889, by 

ROBERT SHAW, 
In the Office of the Librarian of CongresB, Washington, D. 0. 



THE CHALDAEAN AID 




-AND- 



THE CHINESE AND HINDOO 



ORIGINES. 



BY 



ROBERT SHAW, M. A. 



AUTHOR OF 



DREATOR and cosmos; of cosmotheologies and indications op judgment; op a 

CRITIQUE OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT; OF A CRITIQUE OF THE 
HISTORY" OF THE SCOTTS OR GAELS OF THE BRITISH 
ISLES; OF THE PHOENICIAN COS- 
MOGONIES, ETC. 



REVISED. 




ST. LOUIS: 
BECKTOLD AND COMPANY. 

1889. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



(Chalduean and Hebrew Origines.) 

PAGK8 

The Traditions of the Babylonians, regarding the Genesis 
of the Human Race and the foretimes of their own 

people as according to Berosus 1-27 

The Ten Pre-diluvial Epochs of the Babylonians 5-8 

Berosus' account of the Flood of Xisuthros compared 
with the account of the Flood in the Book of 

Genesis 8-11 

The Chaldaean and Hebrew accounts of the Creation put 

into juxtaposition and compared with each other.. 11-12 
As to the Beginning of Babylon; the Tower of Babel; 

Nimrod, the Mighty Hunter; His Empire and Age 12-16 

Brief Description of Nineveh 16 

Ninus and Semiramis 16-18 

Description of Babylon 18-24 

1. The Walls 18 

2. The Quays and Bridge 19-20 

3. The Lakes, Ditches and Canals made for Draining 

and Irrigation 20-21 

4. The Palaces and Hanging Gardens 21-22 

5. The Temple of Belus 22-24 

Meaning Suggested of the Confusion of Tongues 24-25 

Information Conveyed by the Cuneiform Inscriptions; 

the date of the founding of Babylon, illustrated by 
the dates given of the different foundations of 
Carthage 25-27 

Concerning the Dynasties which may have dominated 
over the Chaldaeans from the time of the Deluge 
down to the times of the Persians 27-31 

The Recokds of the Hebrew Origines and Primitive 
History, examined into by Tuch, Ewald, Bunsen, 
Delitsch and others 31-35 

As to the Traditions concerning the Patriarchs of the 

Pre-diluviau Age found in the Book of Genesis.. . 35-39 



il TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGES. 

As to the dates of the Patriarchs 39-46 

The Names of the Pre-diluvial Patriarchs in the Jehovistic 
and Elohistic Kecords shown to have had an identical 
reference and to have been in Succession 7; and 
the Patriarchal Ages from Adam to Joseph inclusive 
and from Adam to Christ shown to have been 
cyclical periods measured by the number 7 46-49 

An Inquiry into the date of the Exodus, which takes into 
account the dates of the capture of Troy; of the 
founding of New Tyre ; of the founding of the 
Temple of Solomon ; of the founding of New 
Carthage by Dido, etc 49-59 

Remarks Particulaelt on the Patriarchs from Adam to 

Joseph inclusive 59-65 

Esau and Jacob, the Gemini or Twins and Joseph 63-65 

(Chinese and Hindoo Origines.) 

As to the Origines and Primeval History of the Chinese 

down to the first recognised Imperial Dynasty. . . . 65—77 
Origines, Cosmogony and Pre-diluvial or Diluvial History 65-74 

Yellow River Overflow 74-77 

The Imperial Dynasties of the Chinese from 2000 years 

B. C. to 264 A. D 77 

As to the Chinese Cycles of 60 years; of 19 years; of 
129,600 years ; and as to their Cycles generalJy as 
well as their achievements in Astronomy in very 

early times 77-81 

As to the Primitive Divisions of the year among the 

Chinese 81-84 

Concerning the Origines, the Primitive History and 

Chronology of the Hindoos 85-98 

The four Cosmic Ages of the Hindoos and their rational 
analysis in the light of the historic records of those 
peoples left us byMegasthenes, Arrian and others. 85-92 

Concerning the Age of Buddha 92-98 

Concerning the location of ancient Iran whence the Arians 

emigrated to India ' 98-102 

As to the Age and doctrine of Zoroaster 102-104 

Concerning the Hindoo Reminiscences about the primeval 

country and the Flood 104-107 



INTRODUCTION. 



(Chaldcean and Hebrew and Chinese and Hindoo Origines.) 

Most enquiring minds among us are very desirous to know just 
about how far back those eastern nations go in their records con- 
cerning the origin of the world and of their own respective nations. 
Our people have somehow got it into their minds that the Chinese, 
the Hindoos and the Chaldasans have records in their books of a 
surpassingly wonderful antiquity for their nations, and surpassingly 
strange, if any, of the origin of the world. The object of these 
" Origines " is to preserve, and perpetuate those cosmogonical and 
ethnological records, so that our people maybe able to see for them- 
selves what they are and to compare them with the Hebrew Cos- 
mogony and Origines with which we all are familiar. 

If it be remarked, as it doubtless will, that they are but scarce 
as they appear in this compendium, it may be answered, as in the 
case of some of our other Cosmogonical treatises, that as here they 
contain much in a limited space — muUum in parvo, as the saying 
is — but they will, nevertheless, be found sufficiently full to give 
as satisfactory a view as is necessary, expedient or feasible for us 
now to attain upon the subjects whereon they are. Here they are 
set forth in our language, in a lucid way, for what they are ; and 
as faithfully mirroring the full originals, which they represent; and 
this is, of course, what is required in this case; nothing less, 
nothing more. 

They will assuredly be found no less interesting in their repre- 
sentation of the rise of the magnificent races, arts, sciences and 
civilizations which in the primitive ages spread themselves over the 
valleys of the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Indus and the Ganges, 

(iii) 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

and from the Hindoo Koosh are said to have spread themselves to 
the east and the west, as parental to the Chinese, the Japanese, the 
northern Asiatic, the ^Ethiopian proper and the Indo European 
races, languages and civilizations, than they are in the portrayal 
of the recorded beliefs of those peoples in their very ancient books 
concerning their cosmogonies, origines and foretimes. 

My knowledge from long experience of the great desire men 
have for the possession of this knowledge, pure and simple, and 
my belief that this knowledge will by comparison of it with the 
Hebrew records help to a knowledge of the truth, as properly ap- 
prehended in the Scriptures, has shown me the expediency if not 
the necessity of placing this treatise in my cosmical system of 
works, thus to afford to the people an opportunity to exercise their 
judgment on the data themselves. Jj # g. 

St. Louis, 1889. 



THE CHALDAEAN AND HEBREW ORIGINES. 



The Traditions of the Babylonians Regarding the Genesis of 
the Human Race, and the Foretimes of their own People, as 
According to Berosus. 

{Translation from the Greek and Latin.) 

Eusebius and Syncellus, following Alexander Polyhistor, have 
left us the following from the First Book of the Babylonian History 
of Berosus. 

" Berosus relates, in his First Book of Babylonian History, that 
he, a contemporary of Alexander, son of Philip (King of Mace- 
don) had copied the codes of very many authors, which had been 
preserved with great care at Babylon for 215,000 years before his 
time: That in those books were contained the reckoning of the 
times, and, likewise, written histories of heaven and earth and sea, 
and of the primal origins of things, as well as of the kings and of 
their individual acts." 

" And, indeed, firstly, he says, the Kingdom of Babylon is situ- 
ated near the river Tigris, but that the river Euphrates, flows 
through it ; and that there grows wild, in the country, wheat and 
barley, lentils and vetches and sesame. More overin the marshes and 
reedy bottoms, adjacent to its rivers, certain edible roots are pro- 
duced, which have the strength of barley bread and to which the 
name of Gongis has been given. Finally, there are there produced 
palm and apple and other fruit trees of many kinds and fishes as 
well as fowls, which pertain to both wood and marsh. A far off 
part of that kingdom is arid and noticeably destitute of vegetation, 

(1) 



2 THE CHALDAEAN ORIUINES. 

while the part which is situated in the opposite direction from Ara- 
bia is mountainous and abounds in fruits." 

" Now, in that city, Babylon, there are occupied, in various 
ways, an immense medley of men of different races, who, forsooth, 
constitute its population, and, without order or restraint, lead such 
a luxurious life as pertains to a long established, beastly custom of 
theirs." 

" And he relates that in the first year (i.e., of the recorded his- 
tory) there emerged from the Red Sea and passed into the bounds 
of the Babylonians a certain horrid beast, which had the name of 
Oanncs and which Appollodorus also mentions in his history. This 
monster, was, indeed, a fish as to his whole body, but under his 
fish's head, he had another head and in his lower parts he had feet 
after the similitude of a man's while also his voice gave the impres- 
sion of the human ; the outlines of his appearance are preserved to 
this day. 

" This monster, he said, was occupied in the day time among 
the people and partook of no food : He taught them letters and 
various kinds of arts, descriptions of cities, structures of temples, 
knowledge of justice and the doctrine which pertained to the regu- 
lating of boundaries: Moreover, he instructed them as to seeds 
and the gathering in of fruits and indeed as to all things which 
directly pertain to a mundane society, so that since that time no 
one has discovered anything extraordinary as to fruit. 

" Moreover, at about the time of sunset this monster, Oannes, 
plunged again, unaccompanied, into the deep and passed the night 
in the immense sea and so led a kind of amphibious life. After 
that, other monsters similar to the first came forth, concerning which 
he promises to relate in the history of the kings. And, besides, 
he says, Oannes wrote concerning the origin of the kings and the 
public government and taught language and industry to men. 

" A time, said he, was when this universal orb was occupied with 
darkness and water: and in these elements sprung up marvelous 
animals, apparently possessing a double nature. For two-winged 
men were produced and some also with four wings and two faces; 
and some indeed having only oue body but two heads thereon, the 
same person being both male and female, and having the genera- 
tive organs also double. There were also other men which had 
goat's thighs, with a horned head; others again with horse's hoofs ; 



COSMOGONY. 3 

others finally with the hind parts those of a horse but the anterior 
parts human, which have the form of hippocentaurs. 

" Bulls, he said, wei - e created with human heads and dogs with 
a four fold body having the tails projecting from the haunches, like 
as fishes ; horses, moreover, with dog's heads and men and other 
animals with the heads of horses, as well as human forms with the 
hind parts of fishes: a multiplicity of other animals, moreover, 
having the form of dragons ; finally fishes similar to sirens, and 
reptiles and fishes and other wild animals in wondrous variety dif- 
fering from each other, whose images accurately depicted are 
preserved in the temple of Belus. Now, there governed all these 
a woman, whose name was Homoroka; but in the Chaldaean lan- 
guage it was Thalath, while in the Greek it is interpreted Qo.Io.tto. 
which means the sea, and by an equal authority HeXijvi), i.e. the 
moon," the Mylitta of the Tyrians. 

" And when all those things were mingled together, Belus super- 
vening cut the woman in two in the middle, out of one half of whom 
be made the earth, out of the other the heaven, all living things 
which had been in her being thus made to disappear. 

As concerning the nature of those things, he says, they were so 
related allegorically : And, indeed, at what time all these things 
were in a state of moisture and there existed nothing there except- 
ing animals, that God cut off his own head and the blood thence 
flowing having become commixed with the earth, the other Gods 
created therefrom men, who for this reason were not only endowed 
with intelligence but participated in the Divine Mind, 

" Let this be as it may, they say Belus, whom the Greeks call 
Zeus (but the Armenians Aramazd) having cut off the darkness 
separated the earth from the heaven and arranged the world beau- 
tifully ; but the living creatures not being able to bear the force of 
the light, died. Then Belus, when he saw the region deserted, yet 
fruitful, commanded some of the Gods to bring the earth into acul- 
tivable state and to form men with the other living beings and brutes 
which were able to bear the light out of the blood which flowed 
from his own decapitated head. Belus created, likewise, the stars 
and the sun and moon and the five wandering stars ( i.e., the five 
planets). 

These things Alexander Polyhistor, being the witness, Berosus re- 
lated in his First Book. 



4 THE CHALDAEAN ORIGINES. 

2. Concerning Things before the Deluge from the Second Book 
of Berosus. 

(Eusebius Chron. Lib. I, Cap. 1. ex-interpete-Armenio.) 

Translation from the Latin. 

" (These things indeed Berosus narrated in his First Book ; but 
in the Second, he reviews the kings one after another. As he Bays 
himself Nabonnassar was at that time king. And, indeed, he col- 
lected diligently the names of the kings ; although he recites no 
work peculiarly theirs, perhaps because there was nothing he 
deemed necessary to be remembered. From him only, therefore, 
is it permitted us to draw the series of the Kings.) In this way, 
then he begins his narration, as Appollodorus says : namely, that 
the first king that reigned was Alorus, a Chaldaeau from the city of 
Babylon. He possessed the government during ten Sari. Far- 
ther, he concludes a Sams as consisting of 3600 years. He adds, 
also, I know not exactly what the Neri and Sossi are ; but, says he, 
a Nerus consists of 600, a sossus of sixty years. Thus does he, 
after the manner of the ancients, compute the years. 

" Having premised so much he goes farther and enumerates the 
kings of the Assyrians singly in their order: Ten (kings) there 
were, forsooth, from Alorus, the first king, to and including Xisu- 
thrus, under whom, he says, that great primeval deluge took place, 
which Moses, also, commemorates. Now, the sum of the periods, 
he says, in which these kings reigned is 120 Sari, namely 432,000 
years. Again in well chosen words he writes as follows: Alorus, 
says he, having died, his son, Alaparus, reigned three Sari. After 
Alaparus, Almelon, a Chaldaean, fivom the city of Pantibiblos, 
reigned thirteen Sari. To Almelon succeeded Ammenon, likewise 
•a Chaldaean from the city of Pantibiblos, who reigned twelve Sari. 
In his age a certain wild animal, whose name was Idotion, emerged 
from the Red Sea, of a mixed form of man and fish. Hence Ame- 
jjalarus from Pantibiblos reigned eighteen Sari. After him reitrned 
Daonus, a shepherd from Pantibiblos, who, even himself, posses- 
sed the government ten Sari. In this man's reign there emerged 
again from the Red Sea four monsters having the same form, 
namely, of man and fish. After these things reigned Edoranchus, 
from Pantobiblos eighteen Sari. In that time there appeared from 
the Red Sea a certain other wonder, similar to a fish and a man, 
whose name was Odacon. Of the sum of those things, said he, 



EPOCHS. 5 

which had been taught by Oannes, this one made an exact exposi- 
tion to all the people. After this there governed Amempsinus, a 
Chaldaean from Lancharis, ten Sari. Otiartes, a Chaldaean from 
Lancharis, succeeding, held the government eight Sari. Finally, 
Otiartes having died, his son, Xisuthrous, ruled the kingdom for 
eighteen Sari, and in his time occurred the great Flood. There 
are, therefore, collected in the foregoing the sum of ten kings and 
one hundred and twenty Sari. This is, farther, the series of the 
Kings: 

The Ten Prediluvial Epochs of the Babylonians: 

I. Alorus, Saris 10 

II. Alaparus, Saris 3 

III. Almelon, Saris 13 

IV. Ammenon, Saris 12 
V. Amegalarus, Saris 18 

VI. Daonus, Saris 10 

VII. Edoranchus, Saris lb 

VIII. Amempsinus, Saris 10 

IX. Otiartes, Saris 8 

X. Xisuthrus, Saris 18 



Sum total, 10 Kings; 120 Sari = 432,000 lunar years. 

'« Now, from these one hundred and twenty Saris they say, are 
computed forty-three myriads and twice one thousand years be- 
sides ; that is, provided a Sarus equals three thousand and six 
hundred years. These things are narrated in the books of Alexan- 
der Polyhistor."* 

I have remarked elsewhere (Cosmotheologies pp. 36-37), that the 
first historic dynasty of Kings of the Chaldaeans is said to have been 
preceded by ten great epochs, from Alorus to Xisuthrus ; that these 

* While Syncellus, Abydenns and Alexander Polyhistor tell us that the Saros was a period of 
3600 years, Suidas, an author contemporary with Syncellus says the Saros was a period of lunar 
months amounting to 1&){ years. In this Sir Isaac Newton agrees with Suidas wheu he says, 
the Sarus was a period of IS years and 6 intercellary months. 

That the first ten kings of the Chaldaeans should have reigned each so many Sari will noj 
appear so wonderful provided we take Suidas' calculation of 222 moons to a Sarus. Tiius the 
10 Sari which Alorus reigned would equal 185 years, the age which Josephus informs us the 
patriarch Isaac had reached at Ins death: but those who are said to have reigned IS Sari must 
have lived 333 years, according to this reckoning, which is but 33 years over half the life of Shem 
the son of Noah, most of which he lived after the Flood; and the whole 120 Sari before the 
Flood would be 2220 lunar years Instead of 432,000, as given above. This would be equal to from 
sixty to seventy successive generations of men. 



6 . THE CHALDAEAN ORIGINES. 

prediluvian epochs have been frequently compared to the so-called ten 
generations from Adam to Noah inclusive, as given in Genesis ; but 
that no such comparison can be justly made for that in the oldest 
Hebrew traditions there are no such ten generations mentioned. 

In order to make this more clear I will proceed farther to col- 
late the Babylonian account of the Flood given by Eusebius from 
Polyhistor with the account given of the Flood in the Book of Gen- 
esis first giving a synopsis and tabulation of what is contained in 
the foregoing . — 

As seen in the above translation, which I have made, Berosus 
states in his first book, that he, a contemporary of Alexander the 
Great compiled those records, which he gives us, from the regis- 
ters, astronomical and chronological, which were, many in number, 
preserved at Babylon, and which covered a period of 215, 000 years : 
He states that Babylon lies near the river Tigris, but having the 
river Euphrates running through the city ; that corn and many 
edible things grew wild there ; that on the Arabian side it was a 
desert country, but ou the opposite side undulating and fertile; 
that in the city and fertile parts of the province vast numbers of 
j^eoples of various races led a sensual life ; that in the first year, 
Oannes, a Merman, came out of the Red Sea and instructed the 
the people ; that other similar Oannes, appeared subsequently, of 
whom he would give an account in his list of kings. For the first 
nine ages he recorded no further remarkable occurrence only for 
the tenth : 

I begin the tabulation of the lists out of the Second book : 
(Euseb. Armen. Version, 1. Compare Sync. 1, 17, Seq.). 

I. Alorus, Chaldaean from Era of Babylon: 13 Sari: 

Babylon 10 Sari: Lunar Lunar years. 46,800 

years 36,000 The two epochs appear as father and 

II. Alaparus, his son, 3 son. 
Sari: Lunar years 10,800 

III. Almelon, from Pantibi- 
loi, a Chaldaean, 13 

Sari: Lunar years 46,800 

IV. Ammeuon, also from 
Pantibibloi; in his time 
the Merman teacher 
Oannes came out of the 
Red Sea: 12 Sari: Lun- 
ar years 43,200 



ERAS. 



V. Amelagarus, from Pan- 
tibibloi : the fourth An- 
nedotes, Merman, came 
out of the Red Sea in 
his time: 18 Sari: lunar 
years 64,800 

VI. Daonus, Shepherd from 
Pantibibloi: in his age 
four m: ien come out 
of the Red Sea: 10 Sari: 
Lunar years 30,000 

VII. Edoranch"s, from Pan- 
tibibloi: Another Mer- 
man, Odakon, comes out 
of the Red Sea. All those 
later Mermen taught 
more fully the doctrines 
inculcated by Oannes: 

18 Sari : lunar years 64,800 

VIII. Ameinpsinus, from Lan- 
charis, (Sync. Laranchi: 
Rawliuson, Sancharis) 
Chaldaeau 10 Sari: Lun- 
ar years 36,000 

IX. Otiartes, from Sancharis; 
(Sync. Laranchi) 8 Sari: 
Lunar years 28,000 

X. Xisuthrus, son of Otiar- 
tes; (Syncellus, p. 30, 
son of Adratus). 18 Sari: 

Lunar years 64,000 

In his reign the deluge 

took place. 

Sum total 120 Sari: 

Lunar years 432,000 



Era of Pantibibloi (translated city of 
writing : Sipparuaya, Sepharvayim, 2 
Kings, XVII, 24, Isa. XXXVI, 19. Heb. 
Sepher, writing: Kirjath-Sepher, the 
city of writing. In the Chaldaic and 
Greek names, Sipparuya and Bibloi, 
the plural is generally used.) Five 
epochs : in the fourth (VI) a Shepherd 
reigns: in the second, third and fifth, 
at least, (IV, V, VII.) men receive in- 
struction. 



Era of Sancharah, (a city in Susiana.) 
three epochs in 36 Sari : the length of 
the first two periods of it being the 
same as that of the last, namely 18 
Sari; just as the length of the third 
epoch of the series is equal to the 
added lengths of the two preceding It, 
as father and son. 



In the epoch of Xisuthros occurs the flood and with this event 
Berosus properly begins his human history. Of course in the p re- 
diluvial epochs the existence of man is implied, although not much 
is recorded of him. The revelations which are represented as having 
been made by mermen are traditionary, doubtless, and embellished 
with myth. It is, however, noticeable, that the ten epochs are 
divided into three great eras, traditionary of different localities: 
the first and second epochs or the Chaldaeo-Babylonian tradition 
or era; the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, or the Sipparic, to the 
northeast of Babylon ; and the Sancharic, to the southeast of Baby- 
lon in Chusiana, i.e., Persia. To this latter Xisuthros belongs, he 



8 



THE CHALDAEAN ORIGINES. 



being described as the son of the second Sancharic dynasty or 
epoch. These epochs are, as their manner of calculation implies, 
astronomical cycles and the chronological references are ideal in the 
same way as those in the calculations concerning the Gods, and 
Demigods in the mythic history of Egypt. It is clear that none 
of these prediluvial epochs contain any chronological data. To 
satisfactorily unravel this whole business some have very anxious- 
ly sought for light from the cuneiform inscriptions. 

Bekosus' Account of the Flood of Xisuthros, Compared with 
the Eecord of the Flood in the Book of Genesis (Euseb. 
Chron. 1, eh. 3; Sync. Chron. p. 30, 31) : — 

" The same Alexander (Polyhistor) speaking from the history 
of the Chaldaeans and descending in order from their first king 
Adratus (ace. to Syncellus, but) Alorus (ace. to Eusebius) to the 
tenth, called by them Xisuthrus, speaks as follows : — 

Now, Adratus having died, his son Xisuthros ruled during 18 
Sari. In his time a great Kataclysm took place, of which the his- 
tory has been recorded as follows : — 



" Ktodos revealed to Xisuthrus in a 
dream that ou the fifteenth clay of the 
month Daisios (the eighth of the Mac- 
edonian year) the flood would com- 
mence, L in which all mankind should 
perish; that he must proceed to bury 
all the books in Sippara, the city of the 
Sun, and build a ship five stadia (3125 
feet) long, two stadia (1250 feet) broad 
for himself, his children and nearest 
relatives; that he should provide for 
them the necessary food and drink; 
and that he should take with him all 
sorts of animals, four-footed beasts 
and fowls. When Xisuthros asked 
where he should sail to, he received 
for answer: To the Gods, with an ac- 
companying prayer that it might fare 
well with mankind. 

The flood at length coming with 
great violence, and soon decreasing, 
Xisutnrus sent forth certain birds, 
which, finding neither food nor place 
of rest, returned and were received in- 
to the ship. 



" And God said unto Noah the end 
of all flesh is come before me, for the 
earth is filled with violence through 
them and behold I will destroy them 
from the earth." 



"And behold, I, even I, do bring a 
flood of water upon the earth, to de- 
stroy all flesh wherein is the breath of 
life from under Heaven; and every- 
thing that Is in the earth shall die." 
Gen. VI., 13, 17. 



" Make thee an ark of gopher wood, 
the length of which shall be 300 cubits, 
the breadth 50 cubits and the height 
30 cubits." Id. verses 14, 15. 



"And thou shalt come into the ark, 
thou and thy wife and thy sons and thy 
sons' wives with thee. And of every liv- 
ing thing of all flesh two of every sort 



THE DELUGE. 



Again In some days after he sent forth 
othrr birds, which likewise returned 
to the" ship with mud on their feet. 
Finally, and for the third time, he hav- 
ing sent forth birds when they did not 
return to the ship Xisuthrus knew 
that the laud was laid open before 
him (i.e., the earth was visible, dry). 
Then having partially broken the roof 
of the ship, he saw the ship itself rest- 
ing upon a certain mountain; and 
soon he himself with his wife and 
daughter and the architect of the ship 
having disembarked, and built an altar 
he fell prone upon the earth and of- 
fered thanks to the Gods. This having 
been accomplished he, with those who 
disembarked from the ship with him, 
never appeared again. But the rest, 
who had been in the ship and had not 
debarked with the company of Xisuth- 
rus, as soon as their debarkation was 
accomplished, began to inquire after 
him and wandering about they called 
npon him by name. But, indeed, it 
was not permitted that Xisuthrus 
should be seen any more; a voice, 
however, was heard from the air 
loudly urging them that they should 
worship the Gods. For not only used 
he to come of religious piety to the 
temples of the Gods but with the like 
honor did his wife and her daughter 
and the pilot of the ship reverence 
them. Then he commanded them to 
return to Babylon and in accordance 
with the command of the Gods, that 
they should dig up those books 
which had been buried at the city 
of Sipparis and deliver them to 
men. But the place where they, 
having • debarked from the ship, 
then stood is the region of the Armiu- 
ians. They having been Instructed 
concerning all those matters and hav- 
ing sacrificed to the Gods, straightway 
bent their course on foot to Babylon. 
Of that ship, which at last rested iu 
Armenia, some fragment, they say, 
remains in the Armenian mountain 
inhabited by the Kurds, even in our 



shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep 
them alive with thee ; they shall be male 
and female." Id., verses 18, 19. Comp. 
vii, 1-5. 



" Thus did Noah; according to all 
that God had commanded him." Id., 
v. 22. 



" In the six hundredth year of Noah's 
life, the second mouth, the seven- 
teenth day of the month, the same day 
were all the fountains of the great deep 
broken up and the windows of heaven 
were opened." — "And the flood was 
forty days upon the earth ; and the ark 
went upon the face of the waters." — 
" Fifteen cubits upward did the waters 
prevail and the mountains were cov- 
ered." — " And Noah only remained 
alive aud those that were with him in 
the ark. And the waters prevailed 
upon the earth 150 days." — "And the 
ark rested in the seventh month, on 
the sixteenth day of the month upon 
the mountains of Ararat." — "On the 
first day of the tenth month were the 
tops of the mountains seen." Vfi. 
verses 11, 17, 18, 20, 23, 24; viii, 4, 5. 

"At the end of forty days Noah sent 
forth a raven, which returned not again 
to him " — afterwards "he sent forth 
a dove," which "found no rest for 
the sole of her foot and returned unto 
him into the ark; for the waters were 
on the face of the whole earth; then 
he put forth his hand and took her and 
pulled her in unto him into the ark." 

"After seven days he again scut 
forth the dove out of the ark. And 
the dove came in unto him him in the 
evening; aud lo, in her mouth was an 
olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew 
that the waters were abated from off 
the earth. And he stayed yet other 
seven days and sent forth the dove 
which returned not again unto him 
anymore." viii. vrs. 6-12. 

" And Noah removed the covering of 



10 



THE CHALDAEAN OKIGINES. 



age; they say, also, that certain per- 
sons bring back thence the bitumen, 
scraped off for the purpose as a remedy 
and preservative against those things 
which are unpropitious and should be 
averted. But those people having re- 
turned to Babylon are said to have 
exhumed the books in the city of 
Sipparis, to have founded many towns, 
to have constructed many churches 
and to have rebuilt Babylon." 



the ark and looked and behold the 
face of the ground was dry. And Noah 
went forth and his wife and his sous 
and his sons' wives with him — and 
Noah builded an altar unto the Lord ; 
and took of every clean beast and 
of every cleau fowl and offered burnt 
offerings on the altar. And the Lord 
smelled a sweet savor and said in his 
heart, I will not again curse the 
ground for man's sake," viii, 13, 18, 
20, 21. 



So far as much or any confidence is placed by the critics in the 
authenticity of the accounts of the Babylonian beginnings they 
end here. In fact Syncellus evidently did not himself believe in 
the truthfulness, perhaps not in the authenticity, of the last part at 
least, of the account he gives from Polyhistor as coming from Ber- 
osus, the Chaldean priest ; for as a final sentence, coming from 
himself, he gives, referring, of course, to what had gone before the 
following : — 

"These things from Alexander, the Polyhistor (i.e., the very 
learned), as being from Berosns, that man, who, in relation to 
Chaldean history spoke falsely, being now before you," etc. Syn- 
cellus himself, however, is not altogether free from the imputation 
of having put forlh lying tales for true with a fair gloss from his 
hand. His statements (p. 44, Chron.) and those from Eusebius 
(Arm. Chron., iv ; Conf. Euseb. Praef. Ev. ix. 5) from Polyhistor 
are supposed to be borrowed from Persian records through the 
medium of a Sybilline book. It begins: " The Sybil says," which 
is reasonably supposed to indicate its character as a concoction of 
some Alexandrian or other Hellenistic Jew. 

After the above the fragment then proceeds as follows : " when 
men still spoke but one language they built a very high tower in 
order to go up to heaven. The Almighty (in Syncellus, the Gods) 
however sent a strong wind and threw down the tower. After that 
men spoke different languages ; from which circumstance the place 
is called Babylon." Babel =Confusion. But it is clear that had the 
old tradition or history contained anything of this kind Berosus 
would have mentioned it. Moreover, according to Hyppolytus 
(Haeres, v. 7, p, 97,)the Chaldeans called the man who was born of 
the earth, but who afterwards became a living soul, Adam ; which 
appears consistent and natural. But Berosus has not mentioned 



CREATION. 



11 



this, neither has Eusebius, and Hyppolytus in making that state- 
ment may possibly have had in mind the Chaldeans of Palestine, 
the Plicenicians or Israelites. 

The Chaldaean account of the flood terminates in local reminis- 
cences and its sacerdotal authors evidently intended it to be under- 
stood that books of theirs, written before the deluge, had been 
saved from that catastrophe, having been concealed in the ground 
at Sippara. 

The Chaldaean and Hebrew Accounts of the Creation Put 
into Juxtaposition and Compared with Each Other. 

From the mutual similarity of the Chaldaean account of crea- 
tion and that in the Book of Genesis one would be disposed to 
conclude them different versions of the same. The conclusion of 
the critics generally I find to be that the old Chaldaean tradition is 
the basis of them both. The fundamental idea is that of the 
emanation of the world from the creative will of the Almighty and 
Eternal God. There is perceived in both accounts five noticeable 
stages of creation: — 



Hebrew Creation. 

1. Darkness aud chaos (Gen. 1, 2.) 
"And the earth was without form and 
void; and darkness was upon the face 
of the deep and the spirit of God moved 
upon the face of the waters." 

2. Separation of the upper from the 
lower by a iirmanent. (Gen. I, 3-1H.) 



Chaldaean Creation. 

1. Darkuess and water, wherein are 
generated all monstrous things and in 
which, finally, the woman, Moledeth, 
mother of life, appears conspicuous. 

2. This woman Bclus split up into 
two halves; out of one of which he 
made the earth, out of the other the 
heavens ; aud he destroyed all previous 
creation in her, the woman. 

3. He then reduced the world to 
order aud created animals that could 
bear the light: those which could not 
perished. 

4. Last of all he cut off his own head, 
but the Gods mingled with dust the 
blood which flowed therefrom and out 
of the compound formed men. On this 
account (adds Berosus) men are ra- 
tional and partake of the divine reason. 

5. This same Belus created the stars 
also, the sun aud moon and the five 
planets. 

We have in the one case the creation of the natural world rep- 
resented in a mythological way ; in the other prominence is given 
to the Divine in the world's formation, that is, to the idea of God 
as antecedent to nature. Berosus himself states, however, that the 
Chaldaean account of the creation is allegorical 



3. Creation of sun, moon and stars. 
(Gen. I, 14-19.) 



4. Creation of animals. (Gen. I, 20- 
25.) 



5. Creation of Man. 
II, 7.) 



(Gen. I, 2C-31; 



12 THE CHALDAEAN ORIGINES. 



As to the Beginnings of Babylon, the Tower of Babel and 
Nimrod, the Mighty Hunter : His Empire and Age : 

Nimrod und his history are pronounced by the critics to be either 
a myth or the most remarkable relic of ancient political history. 
The Biblical narration (Gen. X, 8-11), is the only information we 
Lave of him under that name. He is put down there as son of 
Cush and grandson of Cham. The name Cush in ancient history 
is applied to those called Ethiopians, a people of which name in- 
habited ancient Asia as well as Africa, and specifically also it is 
applied to the Turanian Cusians, a Scythian race pertaining to the 
highlands of Asia. 

The Babylonian researches have proved that no dynast named 
Nimrod was introduced among the kings of the first Chaldaean 
dynasty, and therefore the critics conclude that if any king reigned 
under that name he must have preceded it. Eusebius as well as 
Josephus knew from the works of Berosus and Polyhistor the 
names of 87 kings of which the first Babylonian dynasty consisted, 
and no one of these was entered under the name of Nimrod. They 
conjectured that Nimrod might have been the one named Euechios, 
the first of that dynasty, who is said to have reigned 3,000 years, 
and whose son and successor, Chomasbelos, reigned 2,700. Bunsen 
calls this an unfortunate conjecture of the Christian annallists; but 
I think I can perceive some foundation for their idea ; for Nimrod 
was a distinguished hunter, and Euechius in the primitive language 
would mean a horseman, for Each means a horse, and Evech, or 
Echacb, would mean a horseman, the case ending, us or os, not 
belonging to the word proper. Chomasbelos is a compound of 
Cham and Bel, a name, if I interpret correctly, not unrepresented 
in Gallic history, and it is cpiite likely that this man's father's 
name was Ethach {i.e., Nethach, i.e., Setheach), and that he was 
distinguished in ancient history by the form Neach or Neamhraidh 
(the amh for ach ) ( i.e. , of the family or race of Nedhamh or Noah ) : 
thus his name would come down to us in the hard, unaspirated form 
Nimrod. * 

The implication in this conjecture might, however, be taken as 
a kind of proof that those writers attributed to Nimrod a very re- 

•Neach is Each, a horse, whence our verb "to neigh." 



NIMROD. 13 

mote antiquity ; for irrespective of the vast period assigned to those 
two so-called rulers, the remaining 85 of that dynasty are said to 
have reigned nearly 30,000 years. 

The Median conquest was the commencement of the regular 
chronological registration of the oldest Chaldaean kinsrs, and criti- 
cism supposes it has reduced the historical part of the first dynasty 
to 1550 Julian years before this conquest ; viz., 87 kings, multiplied 
by an average reign of 18 years, as deduced by Newton, equals 1566 
years. Hence the following: — 

Capture of Babylon by Zoroaster 2234 B. C. 

Chaldaean kings preceding 1550 years 

Bejrinnins: of Chaldaean historic chronology 3784 B. C. 

So that criticism leaves the beginning of their historic djmasties 
to be at least approximately 3800 years B. C. later than which it 
supposes Nimrod did not reign. But the dynasty of Nimrod means, 
literally, as I have explained above, namely, the dynasty of the 
race (Gaelic Raidhe) of Neamhaidh (the Heavenly or Holy man, 
Priest) Noah. Tims, the 87 kings, doubtless, occupied as much 
time as we ascribe to them above. 

Now, as to the original home of Nimrod, the son of Cus and 
grandson of Cam, it would seem unreasonable to conclude that a 
revolution in Central Asia should have had its orio;in in the African 
Ethiopia, which lies to the southwards of Egypt and includes the 
equatorial regions of that continent. But the vowels o and u 
especially being but slight variations of the same sound, the same 
Hebrew word (e.g., Gen. 2, 13) may be read Cus or Cos. The 
Cossians were an ancient tribe occupying the mountainous country 
to the east of the Tigris, which is the ancient abode of the Scyth- 
ians. Thus it may appear plain that Nimrod's original home was 
in the continent of Asia and how that the beginning of his kingdom 
is stated to have been the plain of Shinar or Southern Babylonia. 
(Gen. X, 10). There are, however, other things besides the topo- 
graphical nomenclature, which is common to both countries, which 
would lead the investigator to conclude that the ancient country of 
Saba (called by Cambyses Meroe, after the name of his sister), 
near the sources of the Nile, was possessed in the very early ages by 
the same race as that which founded Babylon. But we are treating 



14 THE CHALDAEAN ORIGINES. 

here of very remote ages in the progress of which the race of 
Nimrod (Nedhamhraidhe) doubtless dominated both continents. 

"Nimrod," says Bunsen (Egypt, IV., 4, 12) "is the oldest 
individual personage sprung from the race or country of the 
Cossians, or the Turanian-Scythian race, represented by him, which 
formed 'a vast historical empire. This kingdom must be prior to 
all the Semitic kingdoms, as the Turanian language is prior to the 
Semitic." 

The distinction of the Cusian from the Semitic language might at 
first sight be regarded as, to a certain extent, merely a play upon 
words ; for the statement that Shem and Cham were brothers and 
sons of the same father, Noah, would of course imply that they 
used the same language, and not only them but their descendants 
not only in the third but, likely, in the twenty-third degree, as 
language in Asia does not change remarkably fast; and the Semitic, 
as Bunsen speaks of it, could only have been a variation of the old 
Turanian tongue. Even two thousand years ago, after the revolu- 
tion of so many ages, its general physiognomy bore so remarkable 
a similarity to its northern mother, as to leave no doubt of its 
Airyan-Turanic-Scythic derivation. 

That the Nimrodian empire was not of a brief and transient 
nature is evidenced by the many places, which have the name Nim- 
rod or in whose name that appears as a component. This name is 
said to be connected with all the cities and towns as far as the 
highlands of Kurdistan and even to Phrygia in the west; the pro- 
bability that his army furnished the historical nucleus for the legend 
of Atlantis is considered as independent of the name of his native 
country. 

Rollin (Anct. Hist. II. 44 etc.) says Nimrod is the same with 
Belus, who under tins appellation was afterwards worshiped as a 
God. He says also that some writers have confounded Nimrod 
with Ninus, his son, of whom Diodorus (lib. II. p. 90) speaks as 
follows: — 

" Ninus, the most ancient of the Assyrian kings mentioned in 
history, performed great actions. Being naturally of a warlike 
disposition and ambitious of the glory, which results from valor, he 
armed a considerable number of young men, who were brave and 
vigorous, like himself; trained them up a long time in laborious 
exercises and hardships and by that means accustomed them to 



NINUS. 15 

bear the fatigues of war patiently and to face dangers with courage 
and intrepidity." ■ 

" Most of the profane writers," says Rollin, " ascribe the found- 
ing of Babylon to Semiramis others to Belus. It is evident that 
both the one and the other are mistaken, if they speak of the first 
founder of that city for it owes its beginning neither to Semiramis 
nor to Nimrod but to the foolish vanity of those persons mentioned 
in the Scriptures, who desired to build a tower and a city, that 
should render their memory immortal." He considers it probable 
that the building remained in the state in which it was when God 
put an end to the work by the confusion of tongues ; and that the 
tower consecrated to Belus, which was described by Herodotus, was 
the celebrated tower of Babel. He considers it probable that Nimrod 
was the first who surrounded the city with walls, settled therein his 
friends and confederates and subdued those who lived round about 
it, beginning his empire there but not confining it to any narrow 
limits. "And the beginning of his kingdon was Babel and Erech 
and Accad and Calnch in the land of Shinar." " Out of that laud 
went forth Asshur and builded Nineveh and the city Behoboth and 
Calah." (Gen. X. 10, 11.) But from the fact that this last verse 
may be as justly translated in a somewhat different way, namely : 
" Out of that land he went out into Assyria," Rollin and others 
have concluded that Nineveh was founded by Nimrod himself. 
Here Assur ( Aes-Sethir, the Sun-God) is regarded as the name that 
country, in which Nineveh is situated, already had ; and Nimrod as 
the subject of the verb in that sentence, "he" who went forth 
from Shinar into Assur and founded Nineveh. This would in effect 
make the same man to have founded those two great cities ; but it is, 
at least, perfectly in accordance with reason and with the facts in 
this case to conclude that those two cities were founded, if not by 
the same individual man, yet by the same Nimrodian dynasty. 

The country of Assyria is supposed to have derived its name from 
Asshur, the son of Shem, who settled therein ; but the prophet 
(Micah v :6) seems to describe it as being " the land of Nimrod," 
so, of course, by conquest. 

With other thimrs I find this in Rollin concerninc Nimrod : 
" Among other cities he built one more large and magnificent than 
the rest which he called Nineveh, from the name of his son Ninus " 
(in Gaelic Nin mac Pel, i.e., Ninus the son of Belus), " in order to 
immortalize his memory. The son in his turn, out of veneration 



16 THE CHALDAEAN ORIGINES. 

for his father, was willing that they, whom he had served as their 
king, should worship him as their God and induce other nations to 
render him the same worship. For it appears evident that Nimrod 
is the famons Belus of the Babylonians, the first king whom the 
people deified for his great actions and who showed others the way 
to that kind of immortality which human acquirements are supposed 
capable of bestowing." Id. 

" The holy penman," says the same writer, " has placed Nimrod 
and Abraham, as it were, in one view before us ; and seems to 
have put them so near together on purpose that we should see an 
example in the former of what is admired and coveted by men and 
in the latter of what is acceptable and w r ell-pl easing to God. These 
two persons, so unlike one another are the first two and chief 
citizens of two different cities, built on different motives and with 
different principles; the one self-love and desire of temporal 
advantages, carried even to the contemning of the deity ; the 
other the love of God even to the contemning of one's self. " 

Brief Description op Nineveh : 

It is after his return from a tour of conquest which extended from 
India and Bactria to Egypt that most ancient authors represent 
Ninus, the son of Nimrod as founding Nineveh. His design, says 
Diodorus, was to make Nineveh the largest and noblest city in the 
world and to put it out of the power of those that came after him 
ever to build or hope to build such another. Nor does he seem to 
have been much deceived in this for he succeeded in building a city 
of immense size and surpassing magnificence. It was loO stadia 
(or 18| miles) in length and ninety stadia or (11^ miles) in breadth, 
and consequently was an oblong square or parallelogram. Its cir- 
cumference was 480 stadia or sixty miles. We, therefore, find it 
said in the book of Jonah that Ninevah was an exceeding great city 
of three days journey (Jon. iii :3) which is to be understood of the 
whole compass of the city. From Diodorus we learn, also, that the 
walls of Nineveh were one hundred feet high and of such thickness 
that three chariots might go abreast upon them. These walls were 
fortified and adorned with towers, two hundred feet high, and fifteen 
hundred in number. 



17 



Ninus and Semiramis : 

Ninus having accomplished the building of this city put himself 
at the head of his army of 1,700,000 men and resumed his expedi- 
tion against the Bactrians. Here it is supposed he would have 
signally failed were it not for the assistance of Semiramis, wife to 
one of his chief officers, a woman of uncommon courage and re- 
markably exempt from the weaknesses peculiar to her sex. Her 
birthplace is said to have been Ascalon, a city of Syria. Of her 
birth Diodorus related a wonderful account, which includes her 
having been nursed and brought up by pigeons, an account which 
he himself places no confidence in, lookiug upon it as a fabulous 
story. 

To continue : It was Semiramis who instructed Ninus how to 
attack a principal fortress of the Bactrians, by which he took their 
city, in which he found immense treasures. Consequent on this 
Ninus conceived a warm affection for Semiramis, which her hus- 
band noticing that she reciprocated, it caused him to die of grief 
on which Ninus married his widow. 

By her he had a son whom he named Ninyas ; and not long after 
this he died and left the government to his wife. She erected a 
monument to his memory which remained loug after the ruin of 
Nineveh. 

According to some authors Semiramis came into the possession 
of the government through intrigue: they say that having secured 
the chief men of the state and attached them to her interests by her 
benefactions and promises, she influenced the king to entrust to 
her the sovereign power for five days. All the provinces of the 
Empire were thereupon commanded to obey Semiramis; which 
orders were axecuted but too strictly for the unfortunate Ninus, 
who was put to death either immediately or after some years im- 
prisonment. 

Become secure in the government, this princess according to 
Diodorus, applied all her thoughts to immortalize her name and to 
compensate for the meanness of her extraction by the greatness of 
her enterprises. She proposed to herself to surpass all her pre- 
decessors in magnificence and grandeur and to that end undertook 
the enlargement of the already mighty Babylon, in which work she 
is said to have employed two millions of men, which were collected 
2 



18 THE CHALDAEAN ORIGINES. 

out of the many provinces of her vast empire. This city, which 
she succeeded iu rendering so magnificent, some of her successors 
further adorned with new works and embellishments. Without 
intending to assert by what particular monarch of the Cbaldaeaus 
it was built or enlarged I would say that a general description of 
Babylon is, in place here in order that the reader may have some 
idea, however inadequate it may be, of that stupendous city. 

Description of Babylon. 

The principal works which rendered Babylon so famous were the 
walls of the city; the quays and the bridge; the lake, banks and 
canals made for drawing water from the river ; the palaces, hang- 
ing gardens and the temple of Belus; works of such extraordinary 
magnificence as is scarcely comprehensible. Dean Prideaux's de- 
scription is of course, more full than what will be given here, 
which is, however, sufficiently full to answer every purpose of ours, 
without doing injustice to or belittling the subject itself. 

I. The Walls. 

Babylon stood on a spacious plain of a remarkably rich soil; and 
was the manufacturing center and mart for supply, in those ancient 
times, of a very extensive region. The walls were in every way 
prodigious, being in height 350 feet, in thickness 87 feet and in com- 
pass 60 English miles. The walls of this city were in the form of 
a square, each side of which was fifteen miles, and all built of large 
bricks, cemented together with bitumen, a glutinous slime, exuding 
from the earth of that country. This is said to bind together much 
more firmly than mortar and in time to become much harder than 
the bricks or stones which it keeps together. 

These walls were encompassed on the outside with a vast ditch, 
full of water and lined with bricks on both sides. From the clay 
dug out of this foss were made, it is said, the bricks wherewith the 
walls were built ; and so from the great height and thickness of the 
wall the width and depth of the foss may be inferred. 

In each side of this great square were 25 gates, that is, 100 gates 
in all, which were all matle of solid brass ; and hence it is that 
when God promises to Cyrus the conquest of Babylon he tells him 
(Isa. XLV. 2) that he will break in pieces before him the gates of 
brass. Between every two of these gates were three towers and 



BABYLON. 19 

there were four more situated at the four corners of the square, 
namely, one at each corner; each of these towers were ten feet 
higher than the wall ; but this is to be understood only of those 
parts of the wall where there was thought to be need of towers. 

From the twenty-five gates on each side of this perfect square 
there led off twenty-five streets, in straight lines towards the gates 
which were directly over against them in the opposite side, so that 
the whole number of the streets was fifty, each fifteen miles long, of 
which twenty-five went in one way and twenty-five in the other, 
directly crossing each other at right angles. And besides there 
were, also, four half streets, which had houses only on one side and 
the walls on the other; these went round the four sides of the city 
next the walls, and were each of them 200 feet broad ; the rest 
were about 150. 

By the intersecting of these streets with each other the whole 
city was cut out into 676 squares, each of which was four furlongs 
and a half on every side, that is, two miles and a quarter in circum- 
ference. Round these squares on each side towards the street stood 
the houses (which were not contiguous but had void spaces be- 
tween them), all built three or four stories high, and beautified with 
all manner of ornaments towards the streets. The space within in 
the middie of each square was likewise all empty ground, employed 
for yards, gardens and other such uses ; so that Babylon was great- 
er in appearance than in reality, nearly one-half the city being tak- 
en up in gardens and other cultivated lands, as we are told by 
Quintus Curtius. 

The Quays and Bridge. 

A branch of the river Euphrates ran quite through the city, from, 
the north to the south side ; on each side of the river was a quay 
and a high wall, built of brick and bitumen, of the same thickness 
as the walls that encompassed the city. In these walls over against 
every street that led to the river were gates of brass and from them 
descents by steps to the river, for the convenience of the inhabit- 
ants, who used to pass over from one side to the other in boats, 
having no other way of crossing the river before the bridge was 
built. The brazen gates were always open in the day time and 
shut in the night. 

Neither in beauty nor magnificence was the bridge inferior to 



20 THE CIIALDAEAN ORIGINES. 

any of the other buildings; it was a furlong in length and thirty 
feet in breadth, built with wonderful art to supply the defect of a 
foundation in the bottom of the river, which was all sandy. The 
arches were made of huge stones, fastened together with iron 
chains and melted lead. Before they began to build the bridge 
they turned the course of the river and laid its channel dry having 
another view in so doing besides that of laying the foundations 
more commodiously, as shall be explained hereafter. And as every- 
thing had been prepared beforehand both the bridge and the quays, 
which I have just described, were built in that interval. 

The Lakes, Ditches and Canals made foe Draining and Irri- 
gation. 

These works, the objects of contemplation for the the inventive 
of all ages, were still more useful than magnificent. In the begin- 
ning of the summer on the sun's melting the snow on the moun- 
tains of Armenia there ensues a vast increase in the volume of wa- 
ters in the rivers, which running into the Euphrates in the months 
of June, July and August, makes it overflow it banks and produces 
such another inundation as does the Nile in Egypt. To prevent the 
damage which the city and country would receive from these fresh- 
ets at a very considerable distance above the town two artificial ca- 
nals were cut, which turned the course of those waters into the 
Tigris before they reached Babylon. And to secure the country 
yet more from danger of inundations and to confine the river with- 
in proper limits, they raised prodigious banks on both sides of the 
river, built with brick cemented with bitumen, which began at the 
without doing injustice to or belittling the subject itself. 

To facilitate the making of these works it was necessary to turn 
the course of the river, for which purpose there was dug a pro- 
digious artificial lake 45 miles square, 160 in compass and 35 feet 
deep (as according to Herodotus but 75 as ace. to Mcgasthenes), 
to the west of Babylon. Into this lake was the whole river turned 
by an artificial canal cut from the west side, till the whole work 
was completed, when it was made to flow in its former channel. 
But that the Euphrates, in the time of the freshets, might not 
overflow the city through the gates on its sides, this lake, with the 
canal from the river, was still preserved. The water received into 
the lake at the time of the overflows was kept there all the year, as 



BABYLON. 21 

in a common reservoir, for the benefit of the country, to be let out 
by sluices at convenient times for the watering of the lands below 
it. The lake, therefore, was doubly useful in preserving the 
country from injury by inundations and in rendering it fertile. 

Berosus, Megasthenes and Abydenus, quoted by Josephus and 
Eusebius, represent Nebuchadnezzar as the author of most of those 
works ; but the bridge, the two quays of the river and the lake are 
by Herodotus ascribed to Nitocris, the daughter-in-law of that 
monarch. It is more reasonably supposed that Nitocris may have 
finished some of the works which her father-in-law left incomplete 
at his death, on which account the historian might have ascribed to 
her the honor of the accomplishment of the whole. 

The Palaces and Hanging Gardens. 

On the authority of Diodorus we find that at the two ends of the 
bridge there were two palaces, which had communication with each 
other by a vault built under the river's channel between the two at 
the time of its being dry. The old palace, which stood on the east 
side of the river, was thirty furlongs (or three miles and three- 
quarters) in compass; near which stood the temple of Belus, yet 
to be described. The new palace which stood on the west side of 
the river, opposite to the other, was sixty furlongs (or seven miles 
and a half) in compass. It was surrounded with three walls, one 
within another, having considerable spaces between them. These 
walls, in like manner of those of the other palace, were embellished 
with a vast variety of sculptures representing vividly all kinds of 
animals. Among the rest was a curious hunting piece, in which 
Semiramis, on horseback, was throwing her javelins at a leopard 
and her husband, Ninus, piercing a lion. 

In this last palace (as ace. to Diodorus) were the hanging 
gardens so celebrated among the Greeks. They contained a square 
of four hundred feet on every side and were carried up in the 
manner of several large terraces, one above another, till the height 
equaled that of the walls of the city. The ascent from terrace to 
terrace was by stairs ten feet wide. The whole pile was sustained 
by vast arches raised upon arches one above another and strength- 
ened by a wall surrounding it on every side of twenty-two feet in 
thickness. On the top of the arches were first laid larsje flat stones, 
sixteen feet long and four broad; over these was a layer of reeds 



21 THE CHALDAEAN ORIGINES. 

mixed with a quantity of bitumen, upon which were two rows of 
bricks, closely cemented together with plaster. The whole was 
covered with thick sheets of lead upon which lay the mould of the 
garden. And all this floorage was combined to keep the moisture 
of the mould from evaporating through the arches. The earth laid 
hereon was so deep that the greatest trees might take root in it ; 
and with some sifch the terraces were covered, as well as with other 
plants and flowers which were used to adorn flower-gardens. In 
the upper terrace there was an engine or kind of pump, by which 
water was elevated from the river and from thence the whole gar- 
den was watered. In the spaces between the several arches, upon 
which rested this whole structure, were large and magnificent 
apartments that were very light and had the advantage of a pecu- 
liarly fine prospect. 

According to Berosus, Amytis, the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, 
having been bred in Media (for she was the daughter of Astyages, 
the king of that country), and having been much delighted with 
the wood and mountain scenery of her native land, Nebuchadnezzar, 
supposing it would gratify her, caused that enormous structure to 
be raised. Of this matter Diodorus, without however naming the 
persons, gives much the same account. 

The Temple of Belus. 

Another of the great works at Babylon was the temple of Belus, 
which, according to Herodotus, Diodorus and Strabo, stood as 
mentioned before, near the old palace. It was most remarkable 
for a prodigious tower which stood in the midst of it. At the 
foundation, according to Herodotus, it was a square of a furlong 
on each side, that is, a half mile in circumference, and (according 
to Strabo) it was aiso a furlong in height. It consisted of eight 
towers, one raised above the other, decreasing regularly towards 
the top, on which account Strabo calls the whole a pyramid. If 
the height given by Strabo be correct, then this tower was 660 feet 
high, which leaves it to have been 175 feet higher than the Great 
Pyramid. Whether or not we agree with him, Bochart (Phal. 
part I, c. 9) has asserted this to be the very same tower which 
was there constructed at the confusion of languages. In this, 
however, he found many to agree with him, some of whom asserted 
that this tower was all built with bricks and bitumen, of which the 



BABYLON. 23 

Scriptures (Gen. XI. 3.) say the tower of Babel was built. This 
last would indicate it to be that tower of bricks which Josephus 
(Ant. Book I., c. 11) refers to as built by the Sethites to preserve 
their discoveries, astronomical and otherwise. 

The ascent to the top was by stairs on the outside round it, which 
indicates there may have been an easy, sloping ascent in that inside 
of the outer wall, which turning by slow degrees in a spiral liue, 
eight times round the tower from the bottom to the top, had the 
like appearance, as if there had been eight towers placed upon one 
another. In these different stories were many large rooms with 
arched roofs supported by pillars. On the top of the tower, placed 
above the whole, was an observatory, which the Babylonians used 
for astronomical purposes, and by the use of which some think they 
became more accomplished in astronomical science than all the other 
nations in history. 

But the chief use made of the tower wasfoi the worship of the God 
Belus of Baal as well as the other Deities in the Chaldaeau circle for 
which purposes there were a vast number of chapels in different parts 
of the tower. The riches of this temple in statues, tables, censers, 
cups and other sacred vessels, all of massy gold, were immense. 
Among the images there was one forty feet high, which weighed 
1000 Babylonian talents. The Babylonian talent, according to 
Pollux in his Onomasticon, contained 7000 Attic Drachmae and con- 
quently was a sixth part more than the Attic talent, which contains 
but 6000 Drachmae. 

The sum total of the riches contained in this temple, as calcu- 
lated by Diodorus, amounts to 13300 Babylonian talents of gold. 
If we add to that sum its sixth part, namely, 1050, we have 7350 
Attic talents of gold. 

Now, 7350 Attic talents of silver are upwards of 2,100,000 
pounds sterling. The proportion in the value of gold to silver, as 
reckoned by the ancients, was about as ten to one, therefore 7350 
Attic talents of gold amount to above 21,000,000 pounds sterling 
which now would be worth about one huudred and five millions 
of dollars. 

This temple stood till the time of Xerses (as according to Herod- 
otus, Strabo and Arrian) ; but he, on his return from his Indian expe- 
dition, destroyed it entirely, after first having plundered it of all its 
immense riches. " Alexander, on his return to Babylon from his 
expedition against India, purposed to rebuild it, and in order 



24 THE CHALDAEAN OEIGINES. 

thereto, set 10,000 men to work to rid the place of its rubbish ; but 
after they had pursued this labor two mouths Alexander died which 
put an end to the undertaking." 

What we have now reviewed constitute the chief works which 
have rendered Babylon so justly celebrated : many of these were as- 
cribed by profane authors to Semiramis, whether or not she really 
had anything to do with them. She is said to have lived sixty-two 
years, and of that to have reigned forty-two, and after her death to 
have been worshiped in Assyria under the form of a dove. The 
generally exaggerated account given of her, as well as the name, 
might indicate her to be a mythical character; but she was doubt- 
less historical in some age, only during her life may not have been 
known by the form of name Semiramis. 

As concerning the time of building of Babylon there is in exist- 
ence some information which, as far as we know, or are now pre- 
pared to judge, is of an unimpeachable character, but has for some 
reason hitherto been generally overlooked. Philo of Biblos in his 
learned work upon celebrated cities (Hist. Graec, Frag. Ill, 575), 
as we learn from Stephanas of Byzantium, made the following 
statement about it : — 

" Babylon was built not by Semiramis, as Herodotus says, but 
by Bab3 r lon, a wise man, the son of the Allwise Belus, who, as 
Herennius states, lived 2000 years before Semiramis." The ex- 
tracts from Sankuniathon give us to understand that Philo must 
have been well informed as to the date of Semiramis. 

This same account here given from Philo appears in Eustathius 
with this difference, that in the Tatter it is said to be 1800 years 
from the time of the erection of the tower of Babel to Semiramis : 
In regard to the Babylonian beginnings, then, the case stands his- 
torically about as follows: That antecedent to the building of 
Babylon and its temple there existed a historical series of Chaldaean 
or Babylonian Kings from six hundred to eight hundred years. But 
before this date there are computations of epochs, the traditional 
remains of the foretimes of their ancient people, embellished with 
myth. Berosus has comprised all such beginnings in the first race 
of Chaldaean Kings. 

Meaning Suggested or the "Confusion of Tongues." 

Now, as regards the matter of the confounding of language, this, 
it is thought, may have reference to the individualizations from that 



BABEL. 25 

one mass of languages called the Chinese ; for that as the Egyptian 
language attests that primitive tongue, which does not possess 
"parts of speech," so called, had already been broken up in Asia 
at the close of the prediluvian period : that the great separation 
of the civilizing tribes in Asia had, however, not yet taken place at 
the time of that immigration into Egypt : that the elements after- 
wards recognized as Arian and Semitic were as yet unseparated : 
and that stage in the progress of the development of language is 
in Eastern Asia recognized as Tnranism in Western Asia as Cham- 
ism : but that as the different tribes rose to a higher civilization, 
and as each impressed on its own language the stamp of indi- 
viduality, so something analogous to the breaking up of the primi- 
tive monosyllabic language took place after the dissolution of the 
primitive Cusian or Scythic empire ; that, moreover, individual re- 
ligious feeling and individual social life took an independent shape 
and broke through the uniformity of the previous habits of life ; that, 
thus, the Bible's narrative having a strictly historical basis will be 
found correct in its way, when properly interpreted, and may 
reasonably be supposed to go back in its history to at least the 
eightli thousand B. C. 

Information Conveyed by the Cdneifokm Inscriptions ; the 
Date of the Founding of Babylon Illustrated by the 
Dates Given for the Different Foundations of Carthage : 

As regards the Babylonian royal names which have been recov- 
ered by means of the cuneiform inscriptions and their chronologi- 
cal order, it is admitted that everything anterior to the 8th or 9th 
century B. C appears to stand on a very unstable basis, owing to 
the want of a chronology and sometimes also on account of the un- 
certainty in reading the names. No doubt, so far as I am aware, 
is entertained as to the reality and historical charactar of the older 
royal names, discovered and deciphered by Rawlinson and others. 
It is thought possible, also, that there may have been, in the 9th 
century, a queen or wife bearing the name of Semiramis ; but none 
of that name, for whom such a claim could be advanced, as that she 
had founded the empire of the Ninyads, has been yet discovered to 
have existed. 

And finally, in regard to the time of the founding of the city of 
Babylon, why should it not, as was Carthage, have been built at 



26 THE CHALDAEAN ORIGINES. 

different times, and so the time of its building have been true of 
different dates? 

Carthage is usually said to have been founded by Dido (proper 
name Elisa), a Tyrian princess, in about the year 875 B. C. But 
this does not, in fact, imply that the city did not exist before her 
time. It has been proved historically that her foundation was the 
third for that famous city. Howell has long ago discovered that 
the town consisted of three parts, narnel}', Cothou, or the port and 
buildings adjoining thereto, which he supposes to have been first 
built, and this event, in accordance with Appiari, would have taken 
place 50 years before the capture of Troy, making, say according 
to Herodotus, about 1337 B. C. ; Megara, which, in respect to 
Cothon, was called the New town or Cathado, was, if in agreement 
with Eusebius' statement, built 194 years later; and Byrsa(Bozra) 
or the citadel, built last of all, must needs, if in accordance with 
Menendar, cited by Josephus, have been built 166 years later than 
Megara. The dates here are, however, only approximations. But 
in this way it is seen Babylon may have been built at several times 
and have had the peculiar honor at one of those times of having 
had some female ruler of Chaldaea, a prototype of the Phoenician 
Dido, as its foundress. 



DYNASTIES. 27 



Concerning the Dynasties which may have dominated over 
the chaldaeans from the time of the deluge down to the 
times of the persians. 

A translation from the Latin of Eusebins (in Chron. 1. 4) from 
Alexander Polyhistor. 

" Now to the aforesaid things the same Polyhistor adds the fol- 
lowing: " After the deluge Evechins* reigned over the Kingdom 
of the Chaldaeans, during four neri : Then the government was ad- 
ministered by his son, Chomasbelos, during four neri and five Sossi. 
From Xisuthrus and the Deluge until the Medes occupied Babylon 
the total number of Kings Polyhistor supposes to have been six over 
eighty, whom singly and by name he recounts from the book of 
Berosus. Of all these he computes the sum of the years to have 
been three myriads (30,000) and three thousand and ninety-one be- 
sides. After these who, he says, came into the government in the 
regular order of succession, the Medes having suddenly collected a 
large force attacked and took Babylon and there instituted tyrants 
of their own. From this point he enumerates the names of eight of 
their tyrants, during a period of thirty-four years over two hundred : 
and in succession to these eleven Medes in two hundred and forty- 
eight years. Then, also, forty-nine Chaldaean Kings in four hundred 
and fifty-eight years: After this nine Arab Kings in two hundred 
and forty-five years. In the prescribed recension of these years he 
relates, also, concerning Semiramis, who governed the Assyrians. 
And going backwards he distinctly enumerates the names of forty 
Kings, distributing to these five hundred and twenty-six years. 

After these, he says, there lived a King of the Chaldaeans, whose 
name was Phul (whom also the history of the Hebrews mentions, 
and whom it likewise names Phul). He (Phul) is said to have in- 
vaded Judaea. After this Polyhistor says that Senecherim pos- 
sessed the Kingdom ; whom, indeed, the Hebrew books refer to as 

* Etxijytmi; 6 Ka'i Nej3pw<; ; Euechins, who is also called Nebros, Syncellus p. 7'J. 
B. : or xa/5 i][uv Nsfociz, who with us is Nebros. The b is here interchangeable 
with the m as in the Egyptian. This makes it clear enough that Nimrod is Euech- 
ius. 

" Nimrod is also called Euechius." — Cedrenus. 



28 THE CHALDAEAN ORIGINES. 

reigning during the reign of Hezekiah, while Isaiah was prophe- 
sying. 

But the Divine Book says in distinct language, that in the four- 
teenth year of King Hezekiah, Senacherim came up to the fortified 
cities of Judah and took them. As to the things accomplished of 
whose affairs, history makes record: And Asordanes, his son, 
reigned in his stead. And again as he progresses, he says, at that 
time Hezekiah was sick. Then, also, in order (he relates) that, at 
the same time, Merodaoh Baladan, King of the Babylonians, sent 
ambassadors with letters and gifts to Hezekiah. These things the 
Scriptures of the Hebrews transmit. And, morover, the historian 
of the Chaldaeans mentions Senacherim with his son Asordane and 
Merodach Baladan: with whom also (he mentions) Nebuchad- 
nezzar, as is soon to be related. But, in this strain, he writes con- 
cerning them : 

" Atter this and after the domination of Hagisa over the Baby- 
lonians, a brother of Senacherim discharged the government, who 
indeed, having not yet completed the thirtieth day of his reign was 
cut off by Merodach Baladane : Merodach Baladan, himself, as- 
sumed the government for six months, at which time a certain man 
named Elibus removed him and succeeded to the kingdom. Now, 
in the third year of the reign of this last, Scnechrim, King of the 
Assyrians, led together his forces against the Babylonians and in a 
pitched battle with them came off superior ; Elibus with his family 
and attendants having been taken captive he commanded to be 
transferred to Assyria. He, having become possessed of the Baby- 
lonians, imposed upon them as king, his own son, Assordaue; but 
he himself accomplished his return to Assyria. Soon, however, a 
rumor was brought to his ears that the Greeks had collected a large 
army and invaded Cilicia ; but he attacked them right forwardly 
and the battle having been joined, although many of his own sol- 
diers had been before dismissed, he nevertheless overcame his 
enemies; and his image, as it were a monument of victory, he left 
standing in that place; upon which he commanded that the deeds 
done by himself should be inscribed for the everlasting memory of 
the times. 

" Tarsus, also, he says, was a city built by him, after the pattern 
of Babylon, and to this same city the name Tharsiu was given. 
Now, also, to the rest of the achievements of Senacherim, as re- 
corded, he adds that he reigned eighteen years, until plots having 



DYNASTIES. 29 

been laid for him, by his son, Ardamuzane, he was slain. Thus 
far Polyhistor. 

" The chronology also reasonably accords with the narration of 
the Divine books. For in the time of Hezekiah Senecherim reigned, 
as Polyhistor intimates, eighteen years; after whom his son eight 
years; then Samuges twenty one years- and, likewise, his brother 
twenty-one, then Nabupalasar twenty years ; and, finally, Nabiu-h- 
odrossor three years over fort}' ; so that from Senecherim to Na- 
buchodrossor eighty -eight years passed. 

All these things having been accomplished Polyhistor proceeds 
again to explain some more of the exploits of Senacherim ; and of 
his son he writes plainly in the same strain, in which (write) the 
books of the Hebrews; and of all these things he discourses very 
accurately. The learned Pythagoras is said to have been promin- 
ent in that age under these (Kings). 

Now, after Samuges, Sardanapall governed the Chaldaeans twenty- 
one years.* 

He sent a legation to Astyages, president and satrap of the ua- 
tion of the Medes in order to bring about the betrothal of Amuites, 
one of the daughters of Astyages, to his son Nebuchodrossor. Then 
Nabuchodrossor dominated forty-three years ; who, indeed, having 
collected an army and made an irruption into their countries, re- 
duced the Jews, Phoenicians and Assyrians toservitude. (Nor may 
it be necessary that I should prove in many ways how that Polyhis- 
tor, in his narrative, is perfectly congruent with the Hebrew's his- 
tory.) 

After Nabuchodrossor, his son, Amilmerodach, reigned twelve 
years, whom the Hebrew records call Ilmarudoch. After him, 
Polyhistor says, Neglisar reigned over the Chaldaeans four jears: 
Then Nabonedus seventeen years. While he was reigning Cyrus, 
the son of Cambyses, invaded the Kingdom of Babylon, by whom 
Nabonedus, having been engaged in battle, was conquered, and only 
saved himself by flight. Cyrus reigned at Babylon nine years, 
until, another battle having been joined, in the plain of Dahuras, 
he perished. Then Cambyses held the government eight years; 
after him Darius, thirty-six years; and then Xerses and there, 
maining Kings of the Persians. 

* The same man is here called Sardanapall and Nebopallassar. Josephus Contra Apion 
(1.19) calls him Nabolassar. 



30 



THE CHALDAEAN ORIGINES. 



" Now, concerning the Kingdom of the Chaldaeans, as tersely 
and distinctly as Berosus speaks, so directly speaketh Polyhistor." 

The following two lists as derived from the above will be 
found to correspond with the numbers given for the two last dynas- 
ties over Babylon, as given some years ago on p. 37 second of my 
volume called " Cosmotheolgies etc." The rest, as given in the 
foregoing, will be found to correspond generally with the others, 
except that in the dynasty just preceding, the last Assyrian, Eusibus 
has forty Kings instead of forty-five elsewhere. His aggregate 
number also differs a little from the other, which may have arisen 
from mistakes of transcribers. 



a £ 
>, >*» 

o *-> 

s-i - 

fc s a 



Phul. 

Hagisa. 

Merodach Baladan. 

Elibus. 

Senacherim. 

Asordane. 

Ardamuzane. 

Samuges. 



S3 M 

a a 

o >> 

a t- 
<u 

C3 

■n ' 
2 M 

os a 

S3 

to 



Nebopollassar. 

Nebuchadnezzar. 

Evilmorodach. 

Nerglissor. 

* Laborosoarchod. 

Nabonedus. 



To Nabonedus succeeded Cyrus, the first King of the Persian 
dynasties over Babylon. 

♦The name Laborosoarchod I find in Josephus CContra Apion, Bk. I. 20), who elsewhere 
spells the name Labosordacns. In this last place also he enters Nabonedus as Xaboande'.us 
who, he says, was that Baltasar (Balshazar) from whom Darius, King of Media and Cyrus, 
King of Persia, having attacked Babylon with their united forces, took the Kingdom. 

t Ardamuzane and Samuges may be the two sons of Senacherib, named Adrammelech and 
Sharezer (2 Kings XIX., 37) who conspired against and slew their father in the temple. Or 
thev may have been son and grandson of Senacherib; but iu the foregoing Eusebius gives a 
reign of 21 years each to Samuges and his brother. 




HEBREWS. 31 



The Kecords of the Hebrew Origines and Primitive History 
Examined into by Tuch, Ewald, Bunsen, Delitsch and 
( )thers : 

An analysis of the Book of Genesis, in regard to the beginnings 
of the human race, discovers to us that the Babylonian epochs, 
though bearing some similarity to, are essentially different from the 
Biblical. The nine or ten Babylonian epochs of the prediluvial 
times have been aptly compared to the dynasties of the Egyptian 
Gods; but neither the Chaldsean nor the Egyptian traditions, as 
these appear developed in their respective systems, could have per- 
tained in general to the old races as their common property. The 
one is formed according to the type of Chaldee life, bearing the 
local marks of the general Aramaic race ; the other attained its 
formation in the valley of the Nile, assisted by Phoenicia. If the 
groundwork of them both was Asiatic, as some have supposed, it 
is remarkable that the Egyptians have no account of a flood, a 
piece of ignorance of theirs which was common also to the Phoeni- 
cians. If the groundwork of them both pertained to the Ethiopic 
regions about the Nile's sources, as might be thought to be sug- 
gested by their topographical nomenclatures and the ancient names 
of their deities being, to some extent, common in their ancient 
writings, why have they not developed into consonant and similar 
systems? But while, in one sense, the theologies referred to are 
particular and local, in another they are each general and universal 
representing, in as far as they do represent the Supreme Deity, as 
the same God and Father of the Human race, though under differ- 
ent or varying cosmical ideals and dialectical appellations. More 
distributive, if not more expansive, as to its ideal of Deity, than 
the Phoenician, the Egyptian system did not set forth all perfection 
and supremacy under the ideal of a man, in which some think it to 
have come short or not to have arrived at the most perfect simplic- 
ity attainable. 



32 HEBREW ORIGINES. 

I have stated elsewhere (in Cosmotheologies, etc., p. 12) that the 
records of the early part of the book of Genesis are characterized 
by the use of two forms of the Divine name, the one El, plural 
Elohim, the other Jehovah; which latter is sometimes connected 
with the former as Jehovah-Elohim. This with other marks, also 
of an internal character, has proved to the satisfaction of the 
critics, that the Book of Genesis is made up of at least two ancient 
documents, from which it was compiled at a date posterior to their 
date or dates. It was said by Bunsen that the great merit of Tuch, 
in his commentary on Genesis, consisted in his having established 
"that the Elohim record forms a connected whole, while the Jeho- 
vistic writer is merely to be considered as offering a supplement 
to the earlier original records, which he found in existence. Tuch 
supposed the date of the original record to be about the end of the 
time of the Judges and the Jehovistic writer to have lived in the 
time of David. 

Ewald, in his " History of the People of Israel," supposes the 
Pentateuch to be made up of four great written works and by four 
different authors, omitting a few later additions. The oldest, he 
believes, to be the " Book of the Covenant," composed in the time 
of the Judges, from written sources of information, then ancient, 
some of them derived from Moses himself . Of the other three he 
thinks the "Book of the Origines " the oldest. From it again he 
distinguishes a later authority, to whom, he attributes the 14th 
chapter of Genesis, with the narratives of the Mesopotamian and 
Chaldaean war in which Abraham was an actor, derived from a pre- 
Mosaic source; also the section containing the history of Joseph 
(Gen. xxxix — xli, etc.) with some smaller pieces. As regards the 
Book of Genesis the two accounts of the second and third compiler, 
as according to Ewald, coincide in the main with Tuch's original 
record ; as does the fourth and, in regard to Genesis, the last in the 
series, with the Jehovistic record. The latter, however, Ewald does 
not suppose to be a supplement but a narrative complete in it- 
self. 

As regards the date of its origin, Ewald places the fundamental 
writing (A.) of the Book of the Origins at the beginning of Solo- 
mon's reign. There are in it many peculiarities, which he explains 
by reference to this date among others the remark (Gen. xxxvi, 
31) "before there reigned any king over the children of Israel." 
In the fundamental writing (B) of the third account he recog- 



HEBREWS. 33 

nizes the date of Elijah. The Jehovistic account he assigns to the 
beginning of the eighth century " B. C. 

Of the second and fourth narrators he considers the former to 
have been a Levite and a man of great legislative mind ; the latter 
of a prophetic and poetic genius, a learned man, who extracted 
from the mass of existing records the best materials with good judg- 
ment. He supposes the documents to have been originally private 
and to have emanated from men of great learning and piety. 

Delitsch, a more modern expositor, coincides with the view that 
the Book of Genesis was made up out of earlier and independent 
records and with the view propounded by Tuch as to the Elohistic 
fundamental writings having been completed by means of the Jeho- 
vistic. 

In regard to the components of the Pentateuch Dr. Bunsen thinks 
it. originally divisible into two main portions, being in part made 
up of external events and in part of a history of the internal life of 
men of the Spirit : This being the real and the ideal element in all 
ancient history, out of a combination of the two the epic narrative 
has been made up. While in general acquiescing in Tuch's idea of 
two original records, he thinks the Jehovistic, which is supplemen- 
tary to the other, to be rather of an ideal character and to indicate 
progressive research. He is, however, not at all opposed to the 
idea of the Pentateuch having been a compilation of the products 
of many different authors or an aggregation of their records, as will 
be understood in the following quotation : "If," says he, "the 
false or childish, not to say godless, notion of there having been a 
mechanical communication of the Sacred Books to a single man of 
God (that is, in the present instance, to Moses), for the purpose of 
transmission be abandoned, our faith will rest upon the assumption, 
that each compiler has told us something, not an invention of his 
own, but what he had learned or knew of his own knowledge; that 
he was a faithful vehicle of the traditions, which came down to him, 
and that each of his successors has preserved this national and hu- 
manizing treasure with veneration and fidelity. In this way that 
which seems to have no meaning becomes reasonable and an object 
of moral belief and serious contemplation to educated minds. 

" We come," says he, " to this conclusion by sound science and 
research as much as by methodical thought. By soundingthelaws 
of mind we become conscious of eternal ideas in a symbolical lan- 
guage. What we know not to be true by the logical process, we 
3 



34 HEBREW ORIGINES. 

find through historical investigation to have been believed and acted 
upon instinctively and expressed ritually and artistically. But, 
lastly, the discoveries in our own peculiar domain, those especially 
of Egyptian as well as Assyro-Babylonian antiquity, and p re-em in- 
inently those of historical ethnology have forced upon us the con- 
clusion that there is a far more remote background of early history 
than critics ventured to assume at the begining of this century." 
(Egypt: IV. 384.) 

The truth and soundness of all he has here said being admitted 
we must perceive that a proper understanding or restoration of the 
originals would be a great desideratum. Wh;»t is understood as 
history is the varied picture of the living, active, human race : 
Historical, scientific research can, therefore, accept nothing as 
historical, which proves to be a picture not true to the life which it 
purports to represent; or which, in its general representation, is 
found to be at variance with the conditions of existence in time and 
space. 

Taking such axioms as his guide the historical enquirer often 
finds himself opposed by the Jewish Rabinical belief. Has he 
found enough of cause for rejecting the historical view of a tradi- 
tion? Yet he may not have the means at his disposal of finding 
an affirmative solution, explaining the origin of the tradition. It is 
recognized as the especial merit of some modern historical investi- 
gators to have exerted themselves to the utmost to effect a true and 
complete restoration as to the originals of the Old Testament, and 
that "the dreams of Dupuis and the scoffs of Voltaire" have 
vanished wherever the published results of their scientific-historic- 
Biblical researches have penetrated. It has, in fact, clearly dem- 
onstrated that Christianity, properly understood, lives and moves 
in a sphere of intelligent belief, which is strictly and necessarily 
consistent with truth and fact. 



PATRIARCHS. 



35 



As to the Traditions Concerning the Patriarchs of the 
Pre-diluvian Age Found in the Book of Genesis. 

There are in the early part of the Book of Genesis what appear 
to be two lists of Pre-diluvian patriarchs, descending from Adam, 
the one through Cain and the other through Seth, but which may, 
perhaps, be understood as representing only one. 

Buttman observed that as both lists have at the end Lemach so 
the preceding links from Cain or Cainari downwards, correspond 
exactly with each other, excepting that in the first three after Cainan 
the order of the names are different. He also observed that the 
same names, Adam, Seth and Enos, correspond in the first three 
links of the Elohistic record. Further than this notice Buttman 
did not go in the matter ; but mature research has proven un- 
mistakably the name Seth to be that of the oldest Shemitic and 
Egyptian God ; and this also suggests to our mind that the son of 
Seth is no other than Enos, the Man. Enos is said to be an or- 
dinary Aramaic word for Mau as a Hebrew word is Adam. But the 
word appears more correctly to mean son of Saedhamh or Adam. 
Aenghaes or Aensheach is Enos, or Enoch, the sh in the middle of 
the last word not being sounded in the old language. 

The following are those two registers of ped igrees as they have 
come down to us: — 



Gen. IV., Jehovtstic Record. 

Adam 

Created by Jahveh Elohim 

Qain, Abel, Seth 

'Enos 

Hanoch 

I 
'Hirad 

I 
Mehujael 

I 
Methusael 



'Hadah — Lemech — Zillah 
J 



Gen. V., Elohistic Record. 
Adam 

Seth 



'Enos 

I 
Qeynan 

I 
Mahal'ael 

I 
Iered 



'Hanoch 

I 
Metusela'h 

I 
Lemech 



I 
Noa'h 

I 



Yabal, Yubal, Tubal Quain, Na'Hamah. 



Shein, 'Ham, Yapheth 



36 HEBREW ORIGINES. 

It is supposed the two versions, the Jehovistic and the Elohistic 
led the way to two independent series, which have the same start- 
ing point, and in which, leaving out of the question the change in 
the order of the intermediate names, the only difference is that di- 
vision of mankind before the Flood is represented as taking place 
at the end of the one in the persons of the three sons of Lemech, 
namely, Jabal, Juhal and Tubal-Cain, whereas in the other, the 
separation takes place through the three sons of Noah, Shem, 
Cham, and Yapheth. If there should be thought to be any discrep- 
ancy in the name of the Creator it may, it is suggested, be kept in 
mind that the one truth which pervades them both is that God 
created man in his own image. In one of the traditions the Creator 
is put down as Jahveh Elohim and man himself Adam, while in the 
other he is called Seth and man Enoch. The first refers to the 
primeval country, the laud of Aram, the second to Palestine, 
Canaan, the land of Seth, Suthech. If Noah be omitted in the first 
record, is that a reason for saying it excludes him ? The one only 
treats of the early world, before the Deluge, the other includes this. 

The following includes some of the explanations of the names of 
the Patriarchs : — 

Cham is the dark, the black. 

Shem, the illustrious, having a name. 

Yapheth, the bright, the fair. 

We have here the dark, the red or glorious, and the fair- 
complexioned, which may be thought to represent the colors of 
men in the habitable portions of the earth, from the equatorial out- 
wards towards the polar regions. 

In the view we are now presenting Yaveh and Yaveh Elohim as 
well as Seth, the names of the Deity in the different records are to 
be considered in the ideal character; so Adam, Enosh and Chavah 
(Eve), the life-giving, the mother of all living, as well as Hebel 
(Abel), the vanishing, belong to the same category. 

There are many things which concur to lead investigators to the 
conclusion that the Jehovistic record is the original ; one of which 
things is the spelling of the other names it affords. 

The name Cain or Quain has in that form for one of its mean- 
ings a Smith. It is, therefore, by some explained as in the com- 
pound Tubal-Cain, as an Artist, the Technites of the Phoenician 
Mythology. The form Cainan is a diminutive of Cain and is 
doubtless sometimes used interchangeably with it. Mr. Bryant, 



PATRIARCHS. 37 

however, in his Mythology, gives us to understand that Josephus 
in his original copy, translated Cain as Cais, which suggests Caeth 
for Saeth as Cuth for Cush. Cain is also said to have gone to the 
land of Nod, which doubtless means that the land was so called 
after his name and that his name was one of the forms of which 
Seth is the principal. The root of Seth is Saedh, first root 
Edh, which unaspirated we have as first root in our name Edward, 
which latter we call, briefly, Ned. This land of Nod or Ned, too, 
is eastward of Eden, which suggests the name Seth and which 
means East, this latter being hut a slight transposition of the let- 
ters, and the East meaning the Sun (Saeth, = East) rising; 
(Saethan = Sun). 

Moreover, if in the Gaelic tongue we put the name Saeth in the 
genitive case after Mac and add the diminutive termination, an, 
which is sign of the genitive, we shall have Mac Shaithan, which 
(the sh and th being silent) is pronounced Mac Cathain or Mac 
Con. Hence in the old Gaelic pedigrees the Clan Saeth or Caeth 
or Cathan is Clan Conn. For example in about three generations 
after the Christian era yon meet with in the Irish history king 
Lughaidh Mac Con Mac Niadh, which is, properly translated, Lug- 
haidh son of Eochan son of Edhach, or anglicised Louis son of 
John son of Jack, the Edhach being their Niadh or Ned and equiva- 
lent to Sethach. 

And as to Abel, the brother of Cain, when you say you are able 
(Norman Hable) you mean that you can, may possibly suggest 
here the proper interpretation, which however is only a suggestion 
and nothing more. A literal translation of Gen. IV. i, is: "And 
Adam knew Chavah, his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, 
and said, I have gotten a man, Jahveh." In the margin it is said 
that Cain is equivalent to gotten, which is strictly correct; but does 
not say that this was the name of the child that was gotten. (Jain is 
gain, with the hard form of the g initial, and gain is gaethan, the 
th in the old language being silent and not appearing. So we say 
I have got or gotten, I get (gaeth)or I gather (gaether), &c, 
which shows you how Seth is equivalent to Sethan or Sethar. 

Enoch (Chanoch) which is another form of Enos, is, in this 
form, usually explained the Initiated, or, in the passive idea the 
taught of God, in the sense of a priest, prophet, man of God. In 
one of the records it is seen he is the son of Cain and in the other 
he is the great-grandson of Cainan and the great grandfather of 



38 HEBREW ORIGINES. 

Noah. The fact of his being stated to have lived 365 years, which 
is the number of days in a solar year and yet that " he was not, 
for God took him," may perhaps afford a clue to the interpreta- 
tion of Enoch ; for if the name Seth means the sun, and a year, or 
the course of the sun, so does Enos or Enoch in the old language. 

A form for Cainan in the old language is Chua, which certainly 
is nearer Cain than Cainan, and shows there is no difficulty in iden- 
tifying these two, so far as the forms of the same in the original 
are concerned. 

To say that the form Irad of the one list here is merely a slight 
variation of the Iarad in the other would be, to one who under- 
stands the original, superfluous ; but to say that they were origin- 
ally intended to represent the same man or idea is to the purpose. 

The identification, also, by Bunsen, of the Mehujael of the one 
list with the Mahalael of the other appears in order and correct. 

As well as his identification of Metheushael with Methushelach. 

And the Enoch or Chanoch of the one list with that of the other. 

As well as again the Lemachs of the two lists. 

Hadah (beauty) and Zillah (darkness) are said to be represented 
in the Phoenician mythology, the one as Dione, the other not 
named. Josephus says that Lemach had by these two wives 77 
children. These two female names are mythological. 

Yubal, the son of Hadah, is in Phoenician Esmun, i.e., Samin, 
the God Hercules. Of Zillah, the dark complexioned, is born Tu- 
bal-Cain, the smith or worker in copper. Tubal is the ancestor of 
such as handle the harp and organ and his brother by the same 
mother and father is Yabal, who is the ancestor of such as dwell in 
tents and such as keep cattle. 

It is noticeable that the Yah of Yahveh, connected with the birth 
ofCain, would, when compounded with Abel (Bael), give Yabal or 
Yubal. And since the Y generally arises from the aspiration of the 
T, then Tubal-Cain would be equivalent to Yahveh-Abel-Cain or 
Yahbelseth. The picture appears certainly ideal, the different ap- 
pellations indicating variations of the same idea; and, of course, 
the ancients believed as firmly in their deity under those names as 
the moderns do in God Almighty under the name Jehovah. 

The name Lemach some interpret strong man, others, as Ewald, 
man of violence. It might mean son of the heaven i.e., El-mac. 

Naamhah (Grace the graceful) the sister of Tubal Cain, accord- 



THESES. 39 

ing to Philo's translation of the Phoenician names belong to thecir- 
ele of the Phoenician Esmunidse. 

As to the Dates of the Patriarchs. 

It is, indeed, generally agreed among the theological investiga- 
tors that the dates assigned in the Elohistic records to individual 
names from Adam downwards are not to be taken in a literal sense 
as signifying the ages of individual men. They understand that 
such an assumption is at variance with all the laws of animal organ- 
ism and as contrary to common sense as the notion of there being any 
chronology in the astronomical cycles of hundreds of myriads of 
years. It is, however, considered equally certain that the dates 
given are not merely arbitrary inventions and that in dealing with 
the subject of the Scriptural records the Hebrew text is to be pre- 
ferred to the Samaritan or Septuagint. 

According to the Samaritan version all the patriarchs excepting 
Enoch died in the year of the flood ; but the object of the Septua- 
gint is to throw back wherever possible, the year of the world, be- 
cause the authentic dates of the ^Egyptian monuments could not 
have been unknown to the translators at Alexandria, in the time of 
Ptolemy Philadelphus 270 B. C. 

The following theses relating to this subject result from a consid- 
eration of it in its extended ideal aud, may appear to be, on the 
whole, well grounded. 

1. Among the Aramaeans, Egyptians and Greeks the orders of 
the Gods are identical, not only as to the fundamental conception, 
but also in many of the details, both as regards the idea and even 
the names. 

2. In regard to the origin of the world and Divine worship they 
belong solely to the ideal conceptions. 

3. The only account in which the ideal conception has been pre- 
served in its integrity is the Biblical, which also represents the his- 
torical element of the character of humanity without mythological 
monsters. 

4. The consciousness of the unity of God, which we recognize 
in the Abrahamic conception, gave rise to the ideal element; the 
historical part arose from primitive Aramaic traditions. 

5. Generally not to individual men has the historical element 
reference, but to epochs and critical changes in the conditions of 



40 HEBREW ORIGINES. 

the race, which have been handed down by oral or written tradition- 
ary accounts from age to age. 

6. As experience has proved the Rabinnical view to be untenable 
critically and absurd, philosophically the Biblical tradition must be 
understood, according to the spirit, on the basis of the letter right- 
ly understood. This method has been triumphantly proved, not 
only by a thorough research and a masterly, though delicate, hand- 
ling of materials but by the experience and results of this process 
for over a century. 

For the following tabulation we are indebted to Dr. Bunsen, who 
gives it as his l-esto ration, telling us that in it we have instead of an 
unmeaning genealogy of impossible men a representation deserving 
of the highest respect and befitting the dignity of the sacred writ- 
ings of the earliest reminiscences of the migrating Semites, as it 
was understood in Mesopotamia and recorded in the long interval 
between Joseph and Moses : — 



A. Creation. 




God. 






God. 


'El, 'Elohim 






Seth (Suti, Sutekh). 


Yah, Yahveh 








Yaveh 'Elohim 








Created 


THE 


Man. 


'Adam 






'Enos 


the Red 






(the Strong, the Man) 


B. Human 


Development. 


i. Qain 






I. Qetnam. 


(the Smith), 








Murderer of his brother Habel (the 








Mortal) the Shepherd; founder of 








cities. 








II. 'Hanoch 






IV. 'Hanoch. 


(the initiated, initiating. Seer of God, 








Solar year). 








III. HlRAD 






III. Ybrbd. 


(the dweller in towns). 








IV. MeHuyael 






II. Mahalal'bl. 


(the God-struck). 








V. Methusael 






V. Methuskla'h. 


(the man of God). 









VI. Lamekh VI. Lambch. 

(the powerful, strong). 



41 



Commentary. 



Very little consideration will show that these two hsts have an 
identical reference. God, set forth in the two under different 
fori of name, but meaning the same -s-,n - 
ima .e. As said before the tradition in which God u called Y ahveh 
Elohim and man Adam is decided to be the most ancient or the 
original; the other in which he is called Seth and man Enos, he 
I er the list, considered as other than ideal, the variations m the 
second would arise from the migrations from their °^**£ 
and the dialectical differences, consequent thereon m time of a large 
portion of the raee under the general appellation of Shepherds. 
These would be the descendants of Yabal, son of Lemach and ^de- 
scendant of Adam in the Jehovistic record to whom would cone- 
pond, in the Elohistic record, Noach, the son of Lemach and 
descendant of Enos, that is, Adam as representing the man and as 
beino- thus identical in the mind of Bunsen. 

Moreover, it is noticeable that Yabal and Tubal, of the trio of sons 
of Lemach, the descendant of Adam (the man ), through his son Cam, 
correspond to Shem and Cham of the trio of sons of Noah, grand- 
Is of Lemach, the descendant of Enos (the man) though h 
son Cainan ; that is there is about the same amount ot difleience 
• each duo. Yabal is surely as like Tub al as Sh em or Shames 
like Chem or Cham. Yabal would equal, for one form, Yach-baal, 
he first component of which is in the Gaelic equal to beach and 
Each expressed either way as a man's name. The last form, Each, 
^ngalsoa horse, is likewise expressed Neacb (Noach> ^hence 
our verb « to neigh/' Jubal or Jabal would thus equal EkBaa 1. 

"<And Adah bare Jabal; he was the father of such as dwell in 
tentsand such as keep cattle." Gen. iv 20. This, also , corre- 
sponds to - Shem the father of all the children of Eber (Gen. 
T 1) whose descendants were to be a "tent" race; mean as 
contrasted with Cham. « God shall persuade Japheth an I he 
shall dwell in the tents of Shem." Gen. ix. 27. « And his (Ya- 
btr) brother's name was Yubal; he was the father of all such as 
handle the harp and organ." Gen. iv. 21. I am not aware that 
the race called Shemites have been in history ^^^ 
.uished for skill in music ; but in the reference to the Myotic 
Babylon in Eev. xviii-, 22, one might think there was at least an 



42 HEBREW ORIGINES. 

indirect reference to all Babylonia, which was inhabited principally 
by Cutheans, decendants of Cham. " And a mighty angel took up 
a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, thus, 
with violence, shall that great city, Babylon, be thrown down and 
shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers and mu- 
sicians and pipers and trumpeters shall be heard no more in thee." 
Kev. xviii., 21-22. 

"And Zillah, she also bare Tubal Cain, an instructor of every 
artificer in brass and iron; and the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naa- 
mah." Gen. iv. 22. 

Some interpreters separate the compound Tubal-Cain, making 
Cain to be son of Tubal and the latter to represent Chusor, in the 
Phoenician Mythology, Hephaistos in the Greek and Vulcan in the 
Latin ; which in the way they explain it, is not unreasonable for 
Cain means a smith, a worker in metals, a handicraftsman, and 
Tubal is but another variation of Jubal and Jabal, the J or Y 
arising, as said before, from the aspirated T. 

The Carthaginians had a God Yubal. The name given him by 
Polybius (vii. 9.) in the treaty between the Carthaginians and 
Philip of Macedon is Iolaus, who is mentioned in the Greek myth 
as Heros together with Hercules. ^Esculapius is said to be the 
" fairest of the Gods " and so we read in a Phoenician inscription Ju- 
Baal (Heb. Yav-Baal), which is interpreted " beauty of Baal " and 
which Movers (p. 536) interprets iEsculapius-^Esman-Jubal. At 
the festival of the resurrection of Hercules it is Iolaus (i.e. Julius, 
i.e., Jav-la i.e., Jav-al, the latter component for the full form Baal) 
who awakes him and heals his thigh. According to Iamblichus 
and the Hermetic books the Egyptian name of iEsculapius was 
Kamph, which is regarded as a correct transcript of the mysterious 
name of the Phallic God. 

Now, with the great body of the theological critics I think it a 
reasonable conclusion, in regard to the preililuvian and many post- 
diluvian patriarchs, that if there be historic truth in those traditions 
it never was intended to mean that individual men lived six, seven, 
eight or nine centuries. Had this been the case some would think 
proper to declare the whole statement as intrinsically impossible. 
The general analysis and synthesis, however, of the subject show 
that the original account must have had another meaning than this : 
and if so it will appear from an examination of the Hebrew tra- 



PATRIARCHS. 43 

ditions as shown in the last table or in another or others we shall 
give farther on. 

1. The dates we have before us, according to the Hebrew text, 
as given to the Hebrew patriarchs, reckoning according to the ar- 
rangement of the restoration table given above, are as follows : 



1. A. The era of Seth, ..... 912 years. 

B.H daB ? S 1 1835 « 

/ Enosn ..... 905 S 



The two columns given in the table having an identical reference 
it is found that the number of years given to Seth stands for El or 
for Javeh-El, as according to the present treatment. 

Secondly, Adam and Enosh having, likewise, an identical refer- 
ence, it is seen, they both must indicate an identical epoch. It is 
supposed there may have been originally dates attached to Seth 
(rule of God) and to Adam and Enos (rule of man), but that they 
must have been tampered with to adapt them to the combination of 
two paralled lists, which appear in the tradition as before us in the 
table. 

2. The dates of the second epoch from the first man, as given to 
Lemach, whose epoch is supposed to have terminated in the year of 
the flood : — 

Kenan (Cainan) 910 years. 

Mahalael 895 

Iared (Irad) 962 

Hanoch 365 

Methushelach (Methushael) 969 

Lemach 777 



4878 



3. The epoch of the flood (the life of Noah down to the flood 600 
years (Gen. VII. 6). 

This last date contains the great year of the Patriarchs, which is 
mentioned by Josephus. It is one of the astronomical cycles, at 
the completion of which the equation of the solar and lunar year 
takes place. It is based upon the simple computation, early at- 
tended to by the Asiatics, which Freret appears to have been the 
first to completely unravel among Europeans, according to which 



44 HEBREW ORIGINES. 

sixty solar years are equivalent to 742 lunar months, that is, sixty 
years of twelve mouths and twenty-two intercallated months. 

This tabulation, assuming the two former epochs, as the Baby- 
lonian foretime to have been computed by lunar years we require 
f 600 X 742\* ^ or a cosm i c y ear °f 600 ordinary years 618 years 
60 X 12 / auc ' ^ moutns ' that i s > au( i f° r three such cosmic 
years, 3X600 years, exactly 1855 years. The 

1) first six periods, then, of the prediluvial period 

of mankind from Kenan to Lemach, amounting 
to 4878 years, contains seven complete cosmic years (which 
reminds some investigators of the seven days of creation); 
7X618^=4328 with 550 years over or eight cycles less 50 years. 

According to this reckoning, therefore, the prediluvial world 
lasted eight cosmic years, supposing the last to have been com- 
puted in solar years ; and it is supposed that from this time for- 
ward there is a sequence of solar years, which justifies the assump- 
tion. 

3. Noah to the flood (Gen. VII. 6.) Ninth cycle 600 years. 

Shem (Gen. XL 10-12). Tenth cycle 600. 

There remains of course to be explained the deficit of 50 years 
in the eighth cycle, but it is thought that this is explained by what 
is said as to the length of Noah's life after the flood. He is stated 
(in Gen. IX. 28) to have lived 350 years after the flood, in all 950 
years. These 350 years intervening between two cyclical dates, it 
is supposed, it may originally have been half a cycle, 300 years, and 
that the overplus of 50 years belongs to the eighth cycle, that imme- 
diately preceding Noah. 

Two separate calculations existed here : The epochs of the pre- 
diluvian or old world and then the Noachic period as the starting 
point of the postdiluvian or new world. Noah being connected in 
the calculation with the close of the primitive age and the com- 
mencement of the new, in connecting the two together, it is thought, 
a slight confusion may have taken place. 

If, without considering its origin, we look at the sum of 1835 
years, which is apportioned, not quite equally, to Adam and Enosh, 
we find it corresponds, within 20 years, to three cosmic years, con- 
verted into lunar years. Three complete cycles would require it to 
be 1855 lunar years. If we suppose that in the early days of Mss. 

*S0 tropical years = 742 months 2 days and 20 hours. Consequently 600 = 7420 months — 28J 
days = 1 small lunar month of 29 days, will equal 7419 lunar months as exactly as necessary. 



PERIODS. 45 

an error crept in, and that Enos, the primeval man, had originally 
925 instead of 905 years apportioned to him, we may thus account 
for the 20 years that are wanting. 

In the process of construction these would likely be reduced be- 
low 912 as soon as Seth was represented as a son of Adam, other 
than Cain, and father of Euosh. The letter denoting 20 need only 
have been omitted in order to convert 925 to 905. 

This process would give us to the Flood, reckoning, however, 
only nine patriarchs, for prediluvian time twelve cosmic cycles, 
which, considering the nature of the number 12, some might think 
as reasonable and probable to have been intended as the exhibit of 
ten cycles to the demise of Shem. But we should remember that 
we reckon here only nine patriarchs, whereas in the record itself 
there are ten, corresponding to the ten prediluvial patriarchs of the 
Chaldaean system. 

In reference to this last, Bunsen says: "The assumption often 
patriarchs is founded upon a misunderstanding ; and the conjectures 
which have been thrown out about it fail in supplying any explana- 
tion of the original tradition; but if they were right they would 
explain something which originally did not exist, but owes its exis- 
tence only to a fusion of two lists into one." Egypt. IV. 401. 




46 HEBREW ORIGINES. 



The Names of the Prediluvial Patriarchs in the Jehovistic 
and Elohistic Kecords Shown to have had an Identical 
Reference and to have been, in Succession, 7; and the 
Patriarchal Ages from Adam to Joseph Inclusive and from 
Adam to Christ Shown to have been Cyclical Periods, 
Measured by the Number 7 : 

The foregoing demonstration originated, so far as I know, with 
Bunsen, and I give it in my language as illustrative of a variation 
of my idea. A general survey, however, of the patriarchal tradi- 
tion in its progressive development in the Old Testament and in 
connection with the Phoenician cosmology, will show the utility of 
the following restoration as tending to unite simplicity with cor- 
rectness : — 

Javeh-Elohim. 



Adam = Saeth=Saedhamh=Seir=Edom=Saeturn=Israel=Kronos. 
Cain=Cainan=Chna=Chon=Schaedhghan. 
Enoch=Enos=Chanoch=Chaenghaes=Chaenshach, &c. 
'Hirad=Iarad=Irad=Iered. 

Mehujael=Mahalaleel=Malaliel=Mahalael=Mechiyyael. 
Methusael=Methuselah=Methuselach=Methushael. 
Lamech=Lernach=Lemech=Lamach. 



Jahal, Jubal, Tubal-Cain : Noah 



i \ 

Shem, Cham, Japheth. 

This tabulation gives the number of patriarchs from Adam to 
Noah, these two included, as eight. But it is likely that if the 
names have reference to cyclical periods the number to be reckoned 
before the Flood is only seven, which number represents the days 
of the week: and the life of Noah extending into a new period, 
begins, as it were, a second week. This appears, indeed, to have 
been the intention; for reckoning the names in the patriarchal list, 
as I here restored it, from Adam to Joseph, inclusive of these two, 
there are found 21, or 3 times 7. 



PERIODS. 



47 



Giving, therefore, in this manner, the list, with the number of 
years attached to each name, from Adam to Joseph inclusive of 
these two we have : — 



■s 






1. Seth (i.e., Saedhamh, i.e., Adam) 

2. Caiuan 

3. Enos 

4. Irad 



5. Mahalaleel . 

6. Methuselah 

7. Lemach 



Tears. 
930 
910 
905 
962 
895 
969 
777 



■ 03 <U <, 



8. Noah 

9. Shem 

10. Arphaxed (Mountains of Armenia and Kurdistan) 

11. Seiah (Mission) 

12. 'Heber (Passage) ....... 

13. Peleg (Division; Derivation) 

14. Keu (Rohi, near Edessa) 



950 
600 
438 
433 
464 
239 
239 



=3 . 

h 



15. Serug (Colonies at Osroene) . 

16. Nahor (Colonies in Padan-Aram) 

17. Terah (in Haran) Gen. X, XI 

18. Abram (Gen. XXV, 7) . 

19. Isaac (Id. XXXV, 28) . 

20. Jacob (Id. XLVII, 28) . 

21. Joseph (Id. L, 26) . 



230 
148 
205 
175 
180 
147 
110 



10,906 



It is seen that the middle points of these three weeks of pat- 
riarchal men are occupied by Irad, Selah and Abraham, and the 
beginnings by Adam or Seth (which is here the same), Noah and 
Serug (this last being a fuller form of Seth). We do not find that 
the sums of the numbers representing those patriarchs, when taken 
either by sevens or weeks or altogether, are to be measured by the 
lunar cycle ; but if we divide the aggregate of the numbers of years 
given to these 21 patriarchs by 600 years, the limit of one patri- 
archal cycle, we shall find the small number to be contained in the 
large 18 times with a fraction of -£^. This remainder, if the num- 
bers were cyclical, might indicate either that there had been a mis- 
take made by transcribers or copyists at some time in regard to the 
numbers apportioned to some of the names ; or if these numbers be 
correct as they stand, aud at the same time cyclical, that the cyclical 



48 HEBREW OKIGINES. 

period goes along and does not stop at the death of Joseph, but is 
to have a limit at some remarkable point further down, where the 
aggregate number will be found to be a multiple of the cyclical 
period. 

Now, the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint version agrees with 
other versions and with Josephus that the length of the sojourn of 
the Israelites in Egypt, after the entrance thereto of Jacob, was 
215 years; and if we add together the time from the migration of 
Abraham from Haran into Canaan to the birth of Isaac ( Gen. XXI. 
5) 25 years; and then 60 years to the birth of Jacob (Gen. XXV. 
26) ; then 130 years more to the migration of Jacob into Egypt 
(Gen. XLVII. 9) we shall find it amounts to 215 years or the one- 
half of the 430 years spoken of in Ex. XII. 40, and in Gal. III. 17. 
This last passage would seem to indicate clearly enough that the 
430 years spoken of were to be reckoned from the time the coven- 
ant was made with Abraham till the time of the Exodus from 
Egypt. 

If now we reckon up the whole period from Adam to the birth of 
Christ, following the chronology of Usher and keeping strictly to 
the numbers given in the Hebrew version of the Scriptures we shall 
have as follows : 

10,906 years, the sum of the numbers given to the 21 patriarchs 
from Adam (in full Schaedhamh) to Joseph inclusive. 
195 years from the death of Joseph to the Exodus from Egypt. 
480 years from the Exodus to the erection of Solomon's Tem- 
ple. (1 Kings VI. 1). 
1,019 years before the birth of Christ was the founding of the 

Temple, this being close to Usher's approximate reck- 

12,600 oning. If we divide this sum of 12,600 by 600 we shall 
have a quotient of 21, indicating three weeks (3x7) cy- 
cles of solar years from Adam to Christ. 



INQUIRIES. 49 



An Inquiry into the Date of the Exodus, which Takes into 
Account the Dates of the Capture of Troy ; of the Found- 
ing of New Tyre ; of the Founding of the Temple by Solo- 
mon; of the Founding of New Carthage by Dido, etc. : 

Before going farther it is expedient that we have some under- 
standing in relation to the 195 years we have allowed to the Israel- 
ites in Egypt, as above. To do this we shall have first to consider 
what the age of Jacob probably was at the time of the birth of 
Joseph. It is reasonable that we allow Jacob to have been a young 
man of about 20 years of age, when his mother, fearing lest he 
should marry a daughter of Cheth, sent him away to her brother 
Laban at Padanaram. A consideration of Gen. xxx, 23, 25, where 
it appears that Jacob prepares to leave Laban, almost immediately 
after Joseph's birth; and of Gen. xxxi, 41, where Jacob says to 
Laban: " Thus have I been twenty years in thy house. I served 
thee fourteen years for thy two daughters and six years for thy 
cattle," shows it to be a reasonable supposition that Joseph was 
born when Jacob was not less than 38 years of age, or, more likely, 
39 or 40. We learn from Gen. xlvii, 9, that Jacob was 130 years 
old when he first stood before Pharaoh; and from Gen. xlvii, 28, 
as well as from Josephus (Ant. II, ch. viii) that he died when he 
had lived 17 years in Egypt, consequently at the age of 147 years. 
In Gen. L, 2(5, we learn that Joseph died, when he was 110 years 
old. He very probably died in the second or third year after the 
death of his father, his death, possibly having been hastened 
through grief on account of that, to him, sad event: for we see in 
that last chapter of Genesis that Joseph and his brethern took the 
death of their father much to heart and made a great mourning 
over him when burying him in Hebron. In all probability then 
Joseph died in the 19th or 20th year after his father Jacob had come 
to make his home in Egypt. The data we have, reasonably inter- 
preted, seems to make this conclusion a necessity ; for if he were 
born, say, in the 38th year of Jacob's life and died at the age of 
110 years, he must have died the next year after his father's death; 
if he were born in the 39th year of Jacob's life he died in the sec- 
ond year ; and if in the 40th year of Jacob's life he died in the 



50 HEBREW ORIOINES. 

third year after his father. Now bis dying in the third year after 
his father's death would reasonably mean tbat tbe date of his death 
was 2\, 2£ or 2£ years after tbat of his father, tbat is, it would be 
witbin the third year, a date which I for many reasons have regarded 
as the most probable. It has appeared evident to me that God 
had business for him in the arrangement of the affairs of the 
Israelitish colony in Egypt for say 21 years after his father's 
death. 

Thus in the above calculaiton I subtract from the 215 years, 
which belong to the Israelites in Egypt, after the entrance thereto 
of Jacob, the 20 years which Joseph lived after the entrance of his 
father into that country, and which were already included in the 
aggregate of the sums given to the 21 patriarchs, viz., 10,906 years 
from Adam to Joseph inclusive. 

The year of the founding of Solomon's temple, which in the ap- 
proximate chronological reckoning of the Bible we have in the 
Hebrew version is usually given at 1014 B. C, is discovered by 
Movers to be 969 B. C. We learn from 1 Kings, vi, 1, that the 
temple began to be built in the 4th year of the reign of Solomon; 
and from Josephus (Ant. viii, iii, 1) we learn not only this much, 
but that this was the 11th year of the reign of Hiram over Tyre, 
and the 240th from the time of the building of the new city of 
Tyre. For this last mentioned event, however, there are different 
dates given by different authors, Eratosthenes having it in 1183 or 
1184 B. C. ; the Parian register at 1209 B. C; Herodotus, Thu- 
cidides and others at some date between 1250 and 1270 B. C. Jus- 
tin Martyr (xviii, 3) remarks that Tyre was founded by the Sido- 
nians, who had fled thither when the King of Askalon captured 
their city and that the date of its foundation was the year before 
the capture of Troy ? 

Now, the first Olympiad is 776 B. C. and Dicaearchus places the 
Trojan affairs 436 years before that Olympiad. This would bring 
the founding of the Temple to about 973 B. C. at the latest. This, 
however, may not be found to throw much light on our subject ; 
but Josephus again gives us some data, who tells us (contra Apion, 
B. 1, 18) that " the whole of the time from the reign of Hiram 
to the building of Carthage amounts to 155 years and eight 
months; and since the temple began to be built at Jerusalem in 
the 12th year of the reign of Hiram there were from the build 



TROY. 51 

ing of the temple to the foundation of Carthage 143 years and 8 
months. 

"Carthage," says Kollin (1. 210), "existed a little over 700 
years. It was destroyed in the consulship of Cneius Lentulus and 
L. Mummius in the 603d year of Rome, 3857th of the world and 
145 years before Christ. The foundation of it may therefore be 
fixed in the year of the world 3158, when Joash was King of Judah, 
98 years before the building of Rome and 846 before our Savior." 
Taking the 144 years of Josephus between the founding of Carth- 
age and that of the Temple at Jerusalem this would leave the 
latter event at 990 B. C. But the building of Carthage under 
Dido took place somewhat earlier than the date Rollin ascribes 
for it. 

Appollodorus places the interval between the first Olympiad and 
the taking of Troy at over 480 years, while, as shown above, 
Dicasarchus places it at 436 years. This, according to the former 
would place the capture of Troy at 1256 and according to the latter 
at 1212 B. C. These two afford us fixed points for the sufficiently 
extreme dates of the Greek computation ; and this, taking the 240 
years of Josephus between the founding of New Tyre and the 
founding of Solomon's temple, would leave the latter event, ac- 
cording to Appollodorus, in 1017 B. C, and, according to Dicaear- 
chus, in 973 B. C. 

Let us see what the Egyptian history will afford us on the subject. 
This, however, comes to us through the Greeks which they could 
have learned only through Egyptian priests : In Manetho we find 
two synchronistic data which have a sp ecial bearing upon this 
inquiry. 

Opposite the name of Petubastes, the first King of the 23rd dy- 
nasty, is the following notice in Africanus : 

" In his time the first Olympiad was celebrated." This reign, 
however, lasted 40 years. 

And against the name of Thuoris, the last King of the 19th or 
first of the 20th, as according to some, is the following notice: 
" Who is called by Homer Poly bus, the husband of Alkandra. In 
his time Troy was taken." 

This, as a very indistinct landmark, may help us in fixing the 
date of the capture of Troy. Homer represents Menelaus and his 
wife Helen in their visit to Thebes after the fall of Troy as receiving 



52 HEBREW ORIGINES. 

princely gifts from King Polybus and his wife. In the 4th book 
of the Odyssy, verses 125-132 are as follows : — 

" And Philo brought her silver basket, gift 
Of fair Alkandra, wife of Polybus, 
"Whose mansion in Egyptian Thebes is rich 
In untold treasures and who gave, himself, 
Ten golden talents and two silver baths, 
With two bright tripods, to the Spartan prince. 
Beside what Helen from his spouse received 
A golden spindle and a basket wheeled 
Itself of silver and its lip of gold." 

This gives us a Greek name of the King of Egypt, who was con- 
temporaneous with the taking of Troy ; and the same is clearly given 
in the second clause of the above notice in all the epitomes of Man- 
etho. Taking the largest numbers I find given in Af'ricanus from 
Thuoris to Petubastes, the full reigns given to these two being in- 
cluded, we have the following: — 

Full reign given to Thuoris . . 7 years. 

" time " "the 20th dynasty 135 " 

Longest " " " " 21st " . 130 " 

" « " " " 22nd " . 120 " 

Full reign given to Petubastes . 40 " 



432 years. 
First Olympiad in 776 " B. C. 



Leaving the capture of Troy to be in 1208 " B.C. 

This leaves only 4 years' difference between this calculation and 
that of Dicaearchus for the capture of Troy, and 1 year's differ- 
ence from the Parian register. It is supposed, however, that the 
above calculation, so far as the Grecian element in it is concerned, 
was borrowed by Manetho from Herodotus or rather from Dicae- 
archus, who had just preceded him. He was the more likely to 
have followed the latter as he disagreed much with Heredotus and 
wrote a book upon his blunders in Egpytian history; or, perhaps, 



TROY. 53 

if not a separate work, yet a criticism by him of Herodotus may 
have been gathered from his historical works into one book. 

Sesonchosis or Shishak, the first king of the 22nd Egyptian dy- 
nasty, invaded Palestine " in the fifth year of the reign of Eeho- 
boam," the son and successor of Solomon. The date of this inva- 
sion is put down approximately at 970 B. C, as according to our 
present Biblical chronology. Saul (1st Sam. x. xxi margin); 
David (2 Sam. v. 4) ; and Solomon (2nd Chron. ix. 30, 31) are 
each entered for a reign of 40 years. This indicates that the 
Biblical chronology, for these three reigns, is merely approximate. 
Neither have we other than an approximative chronology before 
the era of Nebuchadnezzar who took Jerusalem and Tyre; the 
latter about 573 B. C. 

But in the above synchronism of the dates of Manetho with 
Dicaearehus and the Parian register we had to take in the full 
reigns of the two extremes, first, that of Thuoris " in whose time 
Troy is said to have been taken " and, secondly, that of Petubastes, 
" in whose time the first Olympiad is said to have been celebrated." 
If we take from these two reigns what some might think a fair pro- 
portion, namely, to put the capture of Troy in the 5th year of 
Thuoris and the first Olympiad in the 21st year of Petubastes, we 
shall have 25 years to subtract from the above sum 1208 B. C, 
leaving 1183 B. C, the date given, approximately, by Eratos- 
thenes for the foundation of New Tyre. 

Now, taking the date of Dicaearehus or 1212 for the capture of 
Troy and adding thereto 1 year, for the date according to Justin 
Martyr, at which New Tyre was founded, or the year before the 
fall of Troy, we shall have 1212+1=1213 B. C. for the founding 
of Tyre. If from this we subtract, as according to Josephus, 240 
years from the building of New Tyre to the foundation of the 
Temple we shall have (1213—240=) 973 B. C. for the founding 
of the Temple. This, however, would be bringing the foundation 
of the Temple much too near the time of the foundation of Car- 
thage and so could not be correct, for 973 — 143 leaves 830 B. C. 
for the foundation of Carthage by Dido, which seems must be con- 
siderable too late. There is, however, something wrong in the 
calculation of Josephus here for I find that the absolute time he 
gives for the interval between the founding of the Temple and the 
founding of Carthage does not agree with the data he himself fur- 

o o o 



54 HEBREW ORIGINES. 

nishes. This data, Movers, in his " Phoenicians," submits to crit- 
ical examination; but the data itself I will here subjoin: 

Abibalos was succeeded by 



Reigned. 


Lived. 


Accession. 


Hyram, his son 


34 


53 


in 20th ; 


year 


Baleastartos, son 


7 


43 


" 37th 


CI 


Abdastartis, son 


9 


29 


" 21st 


a 


Popular rising, headed by the 










four sous of the royal nurse : 










the murderers, the eldest of 










whom became king; Anony- 










mous ^government seized by 










the Slaves) 


12 


— 


it 


it 


Astartos, son of Baleastartos 


12 


54 


" 42nd 


u 


Astarymos, his brother ; is de- 










throned and murdered by 










his brother 


9 


54 


" 46th 


it 


Pheles, dethroned and slain 


8 mos 


50 


" 50th 


<i 


Ethobalos 


32 


68 


" 37th 


ii 


Balezaros, son, 


6 


45 


" 40th 


fl 


Matgenos, son, 


9 


32 


" 24th 


II 


Phygmalion, 


47 


56 


" 10th 


it 



177 years and 8 months. 

Now, Josephus himself makes the 11th year of Hiram to be the 
4th of Solomon and that in which the Temple of Jerusalem was 
founded, in the following words (Ant. VIII. III. 1) : " Solomon 
began to build the temple in the fourth year of his reign." 
"Now that year in which the temple began to be built was already 
the 11th year of the reign of Hiram ; but from the building of 
Tyre to the building of the Temple there had passed two hundred 
and forty years." Another remark of Josephus is upon Menander 
and to the following effect: "In the seventh year of Pygmalion 
his sister fled and founded the city of Carthage in Libya." 

It does not appear that the list with the dates given above needs 
a severe criticism. Everything appears in its natural order and 
nothing appears to have been omitted ; if it be not that the 12 
years given to the anonymous government is simply a repetition 
of that given to Astartos, next following, who is said to be " son 
of Baleastartos " next preceding. In this way there may possibly 
be 12 years too many expressed in the sum total of 177 years 
8 months, a matter which has been noticed by Bunseu and others; 
and it looks as if this were really so. But I do not see how 



DATES. 55 

Josephus could have made the interval between the founding of 
the temple and the founding of Carthage to have been 143 years 
and 8 months out of that data ; for taking the sum total of the 
reigns as it stands above what we have to deduct from it, supposing 
it correct, is the 11 years of Hiram before the founding of the 
Temple at Jerusalem plus the 40 years of Pygmalion after the 
departure of his sister, Elisa, to found New Carthage, which 
makes 51 years. Or, if that sum total be 12 years too much, we 
subtract from the sum 51 plus 12 equals 63 years. In the first 
case we have 177 years and 8 months minus 51 years equals 125 
years 8 months, which, subtracted from the date 973 B. C, found 
above upon the authority of Dicaearchus and Josephus for the 
founding of the temple, we shall have 973 B. C. minus 125 years 
8 months equals 847 years 4 months B. C. for the date of the 
founding of Carthage. If, however, there be an error of 12 years 
too many in the above sum total, as has been thought not unlikely 
that would put the date of the building of Carthage at about 
860 B. C. Bunsen was long wavering as to the proper dates for 
the foundations of Solomon's temple and of Carthage, but finally 
to suit his own synchronisms in Egyptian and other history he 
settled down on the dates 1014 and 814 B. C. for those founda- 
tions respectively. But in thus doing he appears to me to have 
created as many anachronisms as he has proved synchronisms; 
although still he seems to stand proud and erect amid his arbitrary 
self-support. Speaking in relation to these points he says : " The 
year of the building of Solomon's temple (969 in Movers) I no 
longer make 1003 but 1014" — "and," again, " we, therefore, 
assume that 814 B. C. is the year of the commencement of the 
Carthagian era." Egyt. Ill, 414, 415. 

There was an era not only of modem but of Old Tyre, and there 
are said to have been registers in the temple of that city of the third 
millenium B. C, out of which Menander of Ephesus compiled a 
historical narrative from which Josephus made extracts (see, 
Contr. Apion, 1, 17, 18). It was by the Egyptians that old Tyre 
was destroyed. Some have this capture to have been made by my 
Barneses II ; but my own opinion is that it was taken by my Barn- 
eses VII ; in about 1262 B. C. Sesostris or Rameses the Great 
conquered Canaan about in 1542 B. C. Bunsen's opinion was that 
his Barneses III (my II) was the Proteus of Diodorus in whose 
time tradition said Troy was taken. Would old Tyre have been 



56 HEBREW ORIGINES. 

the veritable Troy ? By a transposition of some letters Tyre is 
Troy, -J.e., Traigh, the ancient a having largely the modern Ger- 
man (ancient Gaelic) sound of that letter. The story of Paris and 
Helen is connected with Egypt. Would it be only another version 
of the legend of Typho and his lover, Thoueris, the strong, the 
mighty lady. She left Typho and attached herself to Horus who 
received her and slew the serpent by whom she was pursued. This 
lover of Typho was, according to some, called Aso, the queen of 
Ethiopia. Helen left Menelaus and joined herself to Paris ; and 
under the head of Thuoris, the last ruler of his 19th dynasty, 
Af ncanus says : " who is in Homer called Polybus, the husband of 
Alkandra, in his time Troy was taken." So Eusebius, and Syncel- 
lus in his Laterculus ; the former adding that Thuoris was " a very 
strong and brave man." Some names among the ancients were com. 
mon to males and females. If, as according to my conclusion, th 
Rarueses VII, of my Egyptian list, was the conqueror of old Tyre, 
his name was not either Thuoris or Proteus, but, as No. xxxiii, 
of Eratosthenes' list, Stamenemes (root Seth-Amun-ma, i.e., given 
or endowed by Amun and Thoth). He was 32nd successor of 
Menes and immediate predecessor of King Cheops. In a mythical 
legend the Greeks appropriate this whole Trojan business to them- 
selves. Would some of the Egyptian colonists of Greece have 
been in the train of the capturers of Troy as allies of the Egyp- 
tians? In the name Agamemnon, we have involved the Egyptian 
name Amun or Amenophis, which is Amun-Phis or Amun-Seph or 
Seth and is, iu effect, the name Stamenemes. The component parts 
of the name are Ayetv, root Ay, being the root, and of the meaning 
of our word " act " and Amun-Chon or Seth. Agamemnon," King 
of Men " (Homer), was the acting chief of the forces in the war 
against Troy. 

Menelaus has in it the Egyptian root Men, as in Menes; and 
la for ra, the 1 and r in the Egyptian being identical; and 
Paris (Pa-Re, the sun or ruler) (masc.) would equal Thueris 
(Ta-Re, the ruler etc.) being of the same general sense, but ordi- 
narily feminine though sometimes masculine. There can be little 
doubt that old Tyre and Troy mean the same and that the capture 
of Troy refers to that of Tyre. By Homer Troy is called Illium, 
and in Phoenician Mythology the names Elion and Israel are con- 
nected with Tyre. Skepticism, though sometimes unpopular, may 
yet be productive of excellent effects. It is said of Eratosthenes 



EXODUS. 57 

that in the midst of gushing credulity " he ventured to doubt the his- 
toric truth of the Homeric legends." " I will believe in them," said 
he, " when I have been shown the currier who made the wind bags, 
which Ulysses, on his voyage homewards, received from Eolus." 

Bunsen, also in adjusting his chronology for the time of the found- 
ing of the Temple places the founding of new Tyre in 1254 B. C. ; 
1254 minus 240 making 1014 B. C. This must however, be a near 
approximation to the real date, for it connects on both sides reason- 
ably; making on the one side, the founding of Carthage to be in 
869 B. C, and on the other side, it would make the date of the Exo- 
dus to be in 1495 B. C, Usher making it about 1491, while the 
result of our calculation leaves it to have taken place in 1498-1499 

B. C. 

Our process, as seen above, is as follows : — 

Years . 

10,906 The aggregate of the numbers set against the 

* Do o O 

names of the 21 patriarchs from Adam to 
Joseph, these two included. 

195 The length of the sojourn of the Israelites in 
Egypt afte 1 * the death of Joseph. It repre- 
sents the 215 years of the Israelites' sojourn in 
Egypt, as according to all the versions of the 
Bible properly understood, minus the twenty 
years of Joseph after the entrance of Jacob to 
Egypt there to abide, which 20 years are 
already contained in the aggregate number of 
years given to the 21 patriarchs aforesaid. 

480 From the Exodus to the founding of Solomon'8 
Temple. 
*1019 From the founding of the Temple to the birth of 
the Christ. 



Sum total, 12,600 Which divided by 600, the patriarchal cycle, 
gives 21 (3X7) or three weeks of cycles of 
solar years from the first Adam inclusive to 
the Second. 

* This reckoning makes the Exodus to have taken place in 1499 B. C. But this refers to 
the movement of the Israelites from the eastward to the westward of the Jordan; for, ac- 
cording to my reckoning on the Great Pyramid in " Creator and Cosmos," p. 544, which is 
confirmed by my reckoning as to the date of the Exodus of the Shepherds, in my "Critical 
Keview of the History of Ancient Egypt," pages 47-8 and 52, the Shepherds left Egypt in 
1541-2 B. C. The two reckonings, therefore, may be found to account for the 40 years' wan- 
dering of the Israelites, an item which appears to have been sometimes left unnoticed in 
the reckonings. 



58 HEBREW ORIGINES. 

Since the Christian era began we have passed over three cycles 
and now occupy the middle cyclic day of another week of cycles of 
years. 

From the above it would appear that Herodotus and Thucidedes, 
and evenBunsen, may have had a more intelligent understanding of 
the real Troy and its capture than had Eratosthenes. In allusion 
to the passage in Justin Martyr, which states that " Tyre was 
founded by the Sidonians the year before the sack of Troy," Bun- 
sen, after having said that this was not an invention of Justitu 
says: "The above remark of Justin may probably be of import- 
ance to us hereafter, but it can never form the starting-point of 
serious research, because it is altogether uusupported." (Egypt 
hi: 423.) It appears to me, however, that the remark of Justin in 
relation to Tyre having been founded in the year before the sack of 
Troy was altogether gratuitous on his part, for I see no trace of it 
in his quotation from Pompeius Trogus. It certainly appeal's to 
be his own sapient remark ! Would he have been trying to im- 
prove upon Homer? Bunsen promised to return to that remark of 
his agaiu in the preface to his fifth book but he has failed therein to 
notice it. 




patriarchs. 59 

Remarks Particularly on the Patriarchs from Adam to 

Joseph Inclusive : 

Now, as to the Patriarchs from Adam to Joseph, inclusive, and 
the times that are set against them, it is plain from the foregoing 
they have, at least, a cyclical reference. There are many other ideas 
also implied in the names and numbers from Adam to Shem, inclu- 
sive, which for me to enter into here would take me too far from 
the main thread of my design and which I will leave to be treated 
of by specialists. 

But, beginning with Arphaxed, the son of Shem, and coming 
downwards to Joseph one cannot fail to see in the names and their 
numbers in each case a reference to place and tribe. The reckoning 
in this section may be called loco-tribal as well as cyclical. It would 
appear to begin when the children of Shem had taken possession of 
Arpakhatis, the mountainous district between Armenia and Kur- 
distan. Some Biblical critics, who adopt the Septuag'mt's date of 
the creation, or who even throw it back to 6,000 years B. C. or earl- 
ier suppose this removal took place about 5,000 years B. C. Selah 
(Mission) indicates that the race had descended from their moun- 
tainous habitations and pushed forward its settlements. They are 
still to the eastward of the Tigris, but nearer to that river and to 
Mesopotamia. Heber, Eber (Passage) is not that of the Euphrates, 
which was still to be crossed by the race under the designation 
Abrain. 

It must, therefore, signify the passage from east to west of the 
Tigris. From this time during the continuance of six successive 
epochs, as given in the Table, or until Abrain, the historic home of 
the race appears to be Mesopotamia, and in a southwestwardly di- 
rection. During these movements in this direction, the third loca- 
tion appears to be at Osroene near Edessa. Rehu (Reu) Rohi is 
the old name of Edessa and Serug or Sarug is the district somewhat 
to the west thereof. Peleg (Partition, derivation) would indicate 
the branching off from the stem, at this point, of the race of Jok- 
tan, the brother of Peleg, the father of the 13 South Arabian tribes. 
(Gen. X. 25-30.) The word Nachar means a river and Nachal, a 
brook, and the Greek form Mesopotamia is in the Egyptian records 
Naharaina, that is, the country between the rivers, (Tigris and 
Euphrates). Charan was brother of Nachar and the district of 



60 HEBREW ORIGINES. 

Charan, the modern Karra, was to the northwest of Osroene or 
Edessa, which latter Buttmau ingeniously shows to be identical 
with the district called Serug. A little to the southeast of the latter 
is the City Resen (Gen. X. 12) the Rezaina of Ptolemy, said to 
have been founded by Nimrod. Nearer to the Tigris, but in the 
same latitude is the district wherein was situated Nisibis, not far 
from which was Ur of the Chaldees. This latter city is between 
the eastern confluents of the Charboras and Tigris. This last 
named locality takes us in the patriarchal list, to the name Terah, 
a word which from the analogy of the Gaelic, we know to mean a 
sunny or much enlightened place, a place well exposed to the sun's 
rays. Ur, in the old languages, has, for one of its meanings, light 
(Heb. Aur. ), as in Hebrew, Urim and Thumim, lights and perfec- 
tions. The name of Terah (Luke III. 34 Thara) we first meet with 
in connection with the local name Ur of the Chaldees (Gen. XL, 
24-32;. This name (full Gaelic form, Teabhrach) is merely the 
expanded root of our word tower. It has a reference to the sun 
as well as to an elevated place, in a tower, on a hill or in the observ- 
atory of a palace, which was exposed to the sun's rays or used for 
taking astronomical observations. From this it is seen that Ur 
is simply a contraction of tur or tower, the lull form of which is 
given above. The Chaldaean Shepherds were famous for their as- 
tronomical knowledge. 

The name Abram, in the index of proper names appended to 
the Bible, is said to mean " father of Aram;" and Abraham is 
said to mean the " father of a multitude of a people or peoples." 

Alexander Polyhistor gives the name as signifying "father's 
friend." In Gen. XIV., 13, he is called " Abram, the Hebrew," 
that is, Abram, who migrated over the Euphrates (not theTigris). 

It was after this Abram, the Heber, that the city of Hebron was 
named, "which before was called Kirjath-Arba," (Gen. XXIII. , 
2 ; Josh. XIV., 15). In this general progress from Chaldaea through 
Canaan and southwards, Abram now visited Eg} r pt and became on 
terms of intimacy with the Pharaoh of that country. 

This took place, as near as I can come to it from the data given, 
within the same year in which Abram passed over the Euphrates 
or 25 years before the birth of Isaac. The modest company of 
Abramic emigrants could, doubtless, make the tour, under pass- 
port, in as short a time as a well equipped arm}' of Shepherds from 
Chaldaea, whose passports were their swords, could make it; to 



ABRAHAM. 61 

which latter I would suppose about a year, in the then state of 
things in the countries named, would have been sufficient to have 
subjugated those peoples all the way through and appointed admin- 
istrative governments of their own in full working order among 
them. In the name Abrara (father of Aram or ,Raam) is person- 
ated the patriarchal government of this people at the time indicated ; 
and in Gen. XIV we find him exercising in the field his patriarchal 
governmental prerogatives as he encounters and defeats Chederlao- 
mer, king of Elam, a Cushite district of Southern Persia. Let it be 
noticed that the people of Abram in all those progresses are still 
distinctively of the Shepherd kind ; as we see in Gen. XIII, where 
it is said that the land (meaning Canaan or Phoenicia) could 
scarcely maintain Abram and Lot, after their return from Egypt, 
•* they were so rich in cattle and silver and gold." 

In Gen. XVII. 5, God makes a covenant with Abram, after the 
birth of Ishmael, but nine to ten years jsrior to the birth of Isaac, 
in which he changes his name from Abram to Abraham, giving as 
the reason of the change that he had made him " the father of many 
nations." The Hebrew word for people is usually spelled am but 
it is more properly written Ghana or 'ham: Consequently this in- 
dicates to us the proper spelling of this patriarchal name, of which 
one proper interpretation is "the people that passed over." Of 
the forms appearing in English as Heber or Eber and Abr, as in 
Abram, the primitive root must have been the same, i.e., English 
Abr; but the Rabbinical writings make the initial vowel different 
an the Hebrew, that is, of the two Hebrew vowels which ai-e usually 
translated into English a they begin the name Abraham with Aleph 
and Eber with Ayn. Now, Eber with initial ayn would be better 
translated into English Ghabar, a root, beyond doubt, primitively 
allied to Gbar a lord or a man ; and by adding to Ghabar the word 
for people usually translated am, but more justly gham, and trans- 
posing its last vowel, so as to bring it after r, we have Ghabragham, 
meaning "the people who passed over" or "the people of pas- 
sage," meaning " wanderers," as the old Scuthic shepherds were 
usually designated. Of this Shepherd class were also the Philis- 
tines (Palaischeth) after whom Canaan was called Palestine, and 
who also inhabited Chithim or Cyprus. Of Palestine they were 
the Chethites, Hittites. 

Eber is a variation of the root Abr, passage, meaning over (eber) 
in the sense of beyond and over in the sense of above the head as 



62 HEBREW ORIGINES. 

roof, firmament. As mentioned above thirteen South Arabian 
tribes descended from Yoktan, the brother of Peleg (Philistine, 
Pelasge) son of Heber. These were also pastoral tribes. The 
root Gbar, which I have above supposed primitively the same 
with Ghabar, if prefixed to the word for people, would give 
about the same form as that we have above, but with the g unaspi- 
rated, and would mean " chief of the people," "Patriarch" or 
"King." From this root Gbar, mighty, strong, comes the Phoe- 
nician Cabiri of whom they reckoned eight among their Gods. 
These eight have, first, an Arkite reference, namely, to Noah and 
his jvife and his three sons and their three wives, and secondly, a 
celestial reference, the firmament, sun, moon and stars. 

Gabar or guber is the root of Latin gubernator, a pilot, whence 
our English governor. The Phoenician and Greek Chronos, root 
Charan, is identical with the Latin Guberu, English, Govern, and 
Gaelic Cran, a tree, a ship's mast, as well as represented in Grian, 
the sun. These deities were supposed to exercise a particular in- 
fluence over the sea and maritime affairs, and the Phoenician mar- 
iners were accustomed to have their images placed in the poop of 
their ships. Whether or not the visit of Abraham to Egypt may have 
had any peculiar significance in regard to the after affairs of that 
country may perhaps better be gathered from a consideration of 
our subject as connected with our "Critical Review of the History of 
ancient Egypt." The patriarch Isaac is not said to have visited Egypt 
during his life in obedience to the injunction Jie had received from 
the Lord (Gen. XXVI. 2) ; but in reading of his experience among 
the Philistines, a person would think they had Abraham's experi- 
ence repeated in his. The name we have in English as Isaac (Heb. 
Ytschk, in which the root isTschk) means either son of the strong* 
powerful, or son of the chief of the country. Green's Hebrew 
Grammar (p. 216) says: "Nouns formed by prefixing Y or Th 
denote persons or things to which the idea of the root is attached." 
Under this rule he puts the name, Ytschk as one of the examples. 
Now, the root Tschk is simply the Gaelic Taeseach, with kgutteral 
added on to the root, and this word means literally" thefirst man," 
he who begins, leads. This would be the Hebrew or Phoenician 
meaning of the root Tschk, and the Y prefixed would mean son of 
the chief, the patriarchal chief in this case, who, in his place, was 
both priest and chief. The account we get of this patriarch gives 
the impression of a quiet, meditative personage. His dynasty lasted 
180 years. 



PATRIARCHS. 63 



Esau and Jacob, the Gemini or Twins: 

Of the two sons he left after him who, by the way, were twins, 
the best known in sacred history, and the most expatiated upon in 
oratory was the one last born. In Hebrew the name Jacob means 
heel. Chuil pronounced Queel or heel is one of the clan names of 
the Gaelic clan Tuseach. It has been said the name Jacob means 
supplanter, because this man succeeded, by his wily intriguing in 
receiving from his father, whose eyesight had become dim with age, 
the blessing which had been designed for his elder brother ; but in- 
dependent of any act of his the name Jacob in the Hebrew means 
heel, and this means literally supplant, for, says Webster in regard 
to the derivation of the word supplant; "sub and planta (Latin) 
the bottom of the foot." The name, therefore, means supplanter, 
and, at the same time heel, and is the name James in English. In 
common with Ishmael, the son of Abram by Hagar, who had twelve 
sons that were ancestors of twelve Arabian tribes (Gen. XXV. 13- 
16) the Scriptures(Gen. XXXV. 23-27) give to Jacob also twelve 
sons that were ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel. The name 
Israel Jacob obtained from his having prevailed with God, as the 
theologians very reasonably understand it in the way of prayer; 
seeing this is the only way one can hope to prevail with God. But 
Israel means a leader, champion, Hercules among the Greeks, and, 
in the case of Jacob, illustrates the fact that a person can become a 
champion in achieving the conquest over his own unruly and inor- 
dinate passions, desires and will by his denying himself and living 
a life of righteousness and active godliness, in an infinitely better 
and more honorable way than by having achieved a conquest by 
violence over others. 

As a common personal appellation, however, Israel is an equiva- 
lent for Alexander and for the Gaelic Seach, Seghan, or Seachlan ; 
as, doubtless, it is for Jacob. 

Esau, the elder of the two sous of Isaac, is said to have obtained 
that appellation because of his red color, or rather because of his 
being, at his birth, "red all over like an hairy garment." — (Gen. 
XXV. , 25 ) . But the form Esau being evidently a variation of Edom 
or Adam, which means, as to color, blackish red, it is seen that it 
was on account of his reddish color rather than on account of 
his hairiness that he was called "Esau, who is Edom;" — Gen. 



64 HEBREW ORIGINES. 

XXXVI, 1 ). This idea is confirmed by verse 30, ehapter XXV of 

Genesis, where it is said: " And Esau said to Jacob : • Give me to 
eat I pray thee of that red (pottage ) ; for I faint ; therefor was his 
name Edom." Or, in regard to the derivation of the form Esau, 
we can understand it in as simple a way as being derived from Heb. 
Shav, or Shva (which has one of the meanings of the name 
Abel) by prefixing Y to that root: Thus Yeshav is Esau. Or, 
as we know the name Esau to have been the same originally with 
the form which has come to our knowledge as Jesus, then we have 
Yesha, meaning salvation, as the original. The form " Seir or 
Sechor as Esau is called," as Bunsen says, rather indicates 
roughness, a high place. It is easily seen that from the 
word Seir itself may come our word hair, as very fre- 
quently the letter S is represented in the Greek, English, etc., by 
the smooth breathing, our h. But as to how the name Edom or 
Adam is also Seir it is explainable as follows : The full form of the 
name Adam in the old language would be Saedhamh, that is, the 
Hiiidoo-Scythic or Phoenician would, as the Gaelic continues to 
do, aspirate the d and the m in the word; the Gaelic contracting it 
into Samh or Shamh, meaning the Sun, as the Phoenician, which is 
the Hebrew. Now, the root of Saedhamh, which is Saedh, is com- 
monly used for the full form, as Seth, a precise equivalent for 
Adam: And Sether, would be simply a repetition of the meaning 
of the root, Seth, meaning the Sun. The addition of r to the root 
might, however, indicate only fulness, causation, intensiveness. 
The root Shichor means not only rough and hairy, but has various 
other meanings, such as merchant, trade, trader, reddish-black, the 
river Nile, a mountain, a rough and high place; the Sun, the dawn, 
morning, Sirius, the dog-star. 

But what is expedient to notice further about this is that Esau, 
being called both by the names Edom and Seir, the country of his 
dominion was also called by those two names (the mount Hor, ('not 
Chor,) Numb, xx, 22, etc., being only another variation of Seir); 
this being so it will be the more easily apprehended that he had 
twelve sons, inasmuch as the five ascribed to the man Esau, and the 
seven ascribed to the man " Seir, the Horite, who inhabited the 
land" (Gen. xxxvi.) are all to be reckoned as the sons of one 
man; so that, as regards the number of sons he was favored with, 
Esau is found to have been not a whit behind his uncle Ishmael or 
his brother Israel. 



JOSEPH. 



65 



Josephus in his account of the birth of Esau and Jacob (Ant. 
Book 1, ch. xviii 1.) says : " Accordingly she (Eebeka) in a little 
time, as God had foretold, bore twins; the elder of whom from his 
head to his feet was very rough and hairy; but the younger took 
hold of his heel as they were in the birth. Now, the father loved 
the elder, who was called Esau, a name agreeable to his roughness, 
for the Hebrews call such an hairy roughness Seir ; but Jacob, the 
younger, was best beloved by his mother." This makes plain that 
the Hebrews understood the form Seir as an equivalent for Esau, 
a fact which Mr. Whiston, the translator, was fully cognizant of, 
doubtless from his own Hebrew scholarship, independently of Jo- 
sephus; for he says in a foot-note to this passage : " For Seir, in 
Josephus, the coherence requires that we read Esau or Seir, 
which signifies the same thing." 

Joseph : 

It remains for me now to say but a word in regard to the patri- 
arch Joseph, the son of Israel, of whom in treating of Egypt I 
had to make frequent mention. I find his name to be spelled Jo- 
seph in all the Old Testament, wherein, there is much related con- 
cerning him, excepting in one place, Psalm lxxxi, 5, where it is 
spelled Jeoseph or Yhvsph. It is the same name however, relating 
to the same person. At him there, is evidently a turning point in 
the patriarchal history. 

There is a matter connected with this whole subject of the Patri- 
archs, which could not fairly be passed over in silence and that is 
in relation to the limit of the duration of the sojourn of the Isra- 
elites in iEgypt ; and as Josephus in his treatise against Apion as- 
sumes the identity of the Hebrews with the Shepherd races or 
Hyksos of Egypt I have found it necessary to discuss at length in 
my " Critical Review of the History of Ancient Egypt," the whole 
subject of the Egyptian dynasties of the empire so called of Menes, 
in which will be perceived what the assumed connection of that 
Kingdom with the Hebrews or with any other people foreign to it 
may amount to. To that discussion I do, at this point, think 
necessary to direct your attention. 




CHINESE AND HINDOO ORIGINES. 



AS TO THE OEIGINES AND PRIMEVAL HlSTORY OF THE CHINESE DOWN 
TO THE FIRST RECOGNIZED IMPERIAL DYNASTY. 

The origines and primitive history of the Chinese, have not ap- 
parently much of any connection with those of the Chaldaeans. 
Although some have claimed to perceive among the data in the 
ancient history of China an account of the Flood ; yet the critics 
have now long been generally agreed that the Chinese, " who," as 
they say, " migrated before the Deluge," have in their ancient re- 
cords no account of that catastrophe. In this respect, which is a 
negative consideration, the Chinese records of their origines agree 
with those of the Egyptians and Phoenicians, while presenting a 
remarkable contrast to the positive Diluvian view contained in the 
Chaldaean and Hebrew. 



Origines, Cosmogony and Prediluval or Diluvial History: 

The Chinese Cosmogony, as briefly set forth by Litse, one of the 
most distinguished writers of that nation, is as follows : — 

The Universe sprang from the union of the male primeval power, 
Yang with the female, Yiu. .ZEther constituted the first beginning. 
The organized All sprung from Chaos, the finer parts mounting up 
(heaven) the grosser remaining below (earth). 

Out of the Cosmic Egg proceeded Pu-An-Ku the primeval man : 
He lived 18,000 years. Then came in order the reigns of Heaven 
and Earth; of men, during repeated myriads of years. One of 
those old rulers, Sui-Shin, investigated the five elements ; discovered 
fire and practiced astronomical observations. 

To these succeeded the Five Rulers, who represented ( mythically) 
66 



CHINESE ORIGINES. 67 

historical epochs, in the primitive history anterior to Yao, as re- 
corded in the Annals of Shen-Si, the very ancient home of the race. 

In the reign of Fohi, who is called the great and brilliant, as- 
tronomy and religion as well as writing was cultivated. The dura- 
tion of his reign was 110 years : To his succeed fifteen reigns which 
are enveloped in much obscurity. 

Shin-Nong, the Divine Husbandman, cultivated agriculture and 
practiced a primitive homeopathy in medicine. 

In the reign of Hoang-Ti (great ruler), who began a new dynasty 
there was an improvement made in the written character, said to 
have been suggested by the lines on the tortoise shell; there was 
also invented the smelting of copper for the manufacture of weapons, 
vases of remarkable contrivance and money. His invention for 
the improvement of writing consisted of 500 hieroglyphs of which 
about 200 can still be pointed out. It was in the 61st year of his 
reign he established the astronomical cycle of 60 years : He also 
caused to be erected fixed habitations throughout his dominions and 
invented musical instruments. In his reign appeared the fabulous 
bird Sin and through his means was the empire much extended to- 
wards the southwards. Under his immediate successor, Shao-Hao, 
who appears to have been his son, the heresy of demon-worship is 
said to have sprung up ; which appears to have been true as far as 
regards a variation, which crept in, of the ancient Chinese worship 
of the Shin, the spirits of the departed. This worship of the spirits 
of their departed ancestors, the most vital element in their religion 
of the present day, is a primitive tenet of theirs, associated with 
the worship of heaven and earth. 

In the reign of Tshuen-Hiii, the second successor of Hoang-Ti, a 
conjunction of the five planets is recorded. 

Kao-Sin or the Black Ti-Ko, an elective ruler of another race, 
followed. He lived, on the whole, an effeminate life, displaying 
generally a remarkable taste for music. His mother is said in the 
Shi-King (IV. 3, 3) to have been the ancestress of the second impe- 
rial dynasty, Shang. 

His eldest son followed and was shortly afterwards dethroned on 
account of his excesses ; Yao was elected in his place and appointed 
the posthumous brother of his.predecessor governor of the province 
of his maternal ancestors. 

In the time of Yao the celestial globe was made, on which are 
represented the constellations : Before this, from the neglect of in- 



68 FLOODS. 

tercalkition, the computation of the years had fallen into confu- 
sion. 

A man of enormous stature and a son of poor parents, named 
Shin, was chosen by Yao as his son-in-law and coadjutor in the gov- 
ernment. Of him several interesting stories are told by Mr. Guzlaff 
in his history of the Chinese. Yao and Shin form the junction be- 
tween the old history of the aboriginal country and the imperial 
history. Shin became the successor of Yao. There are in the 
Shuking some ancient maxims of both these kings which are interest- 
ing, and some which are difficult to be understood. 

Yu, the son of Kuen, who had been engaged in draining the 
country of vast floods of water which were wont to overflow 
periodically certain portions of it from the rivers and streams 
up to the days of Yao and Shin, succeeds the latter after hav- 
ing reigned for a considerable time jointly with him. These in- 
undations, in the time of Yao and Shin, from whose evil effects 
Yu, the son of Kuen, saved the country by erecting enor- 
mous dams and sinking ditches and canals to carry it off, suggests 
to Mr. Guzlaff and some others the Flood of Noah. With this idea 
they are more strongly impressed because that Yu is looked upon 
as the first of the recognized historical dynasties. The critics gen- 
erally, however, see in Yu only a remarkably enterprising king, 
who proved himself a great benefactor to the country by his vast 
public works, more especially in the way of drainage of the parts 
ordinarily overflowed and overmoist from the periodical freshets of 
the streams from the mountains and rivers. He was the founder of 
the dominion of the kings or princes of Shen-Si, in northern China, 
as far as the great river, which province, he, to a large extent, ren- 
dered habitable and productive by his having diverted the course of 
the Yellow River and thereby rendered the naturally fertile plains 
between the rivers capable of cultivation. The Chinese records con- 
tain a statistical survey of the empire said to have been made in his 
time, with details of plans and institutions of public works. But 
one would suppose that Mr. Guzlaff and all others who have thought 
of the deluge in connection with Yu, would have plainly perceived 
that the time set down for him, 2000 B. C, is later than the time 
given for the deluge as according to the Septuagint, Samaritan or 
Hebraic version, this last as interpreted chronologically by Usher, 
that is, unless they made their date to coincide with that precarious 
one of Yao and Shin, his immediate predecessors. But on this sub- 



CHINESE ORIGINES. 69 

ject a certain Christian author speaks as follows : " The inundation 
in the time of Yu had just as much to do with Noah's flood as the 
dams he erected and the canals he dug had to do with the ark. The 
learned Jesuit fathers were well aware of this ; but they were pre- 
vented by orders from Rome from publishing the truth. The fact 
of so absurd an idea being accepted by the English and Scotch mis- 
sionaries and even by Morrison himself is a very melancholy instance 
of the way in which the sound judgment of learned men may be 
warped by Rabbinical superstition and the intolerant ignorance of 
their churches, in the investigation of historical truth." 

It is, however, generally understood that this province of Shen- 
si was largely habitable and inhabited before the time of Yu ; for 
the dynasty, called the Shin-si possessed annals of an earlier date 
at the head of which were the renowned Fohi (whom indeed, some 
also, have supposed to be Noah, as if they were determined to have 
the deluge take place in that province) and Hoang-ti ; and still 
earlier annals even than these. This earlier history of Shen-si is 
divided into two parts. First, the primeval time or the life of the 
ancestors of those people in their aboriginal- country in northern 
Asia, the country of Keiu-lung and the river of the north. Second- 
ly, the history of those people within China proper, particularly the 
province of Shen-si. 

All the ancient geograpical traditions of the Chinese, as may be 
seen in Ritter's Chinese History, refer to the immigration of their 
ancestors from the northwest. 

Chinese writers have always conveyed their understanding of the 
works of Yu as being in the sense of a deliverance of a certain 
portion of the country from the evil effects of the periodical over- 
flows from certain streams. In a brief account of it, in the Chinese 
translated by Julius Von Klaproth, is the following: — 

" In the sixty-first year of the reign of the emperor Yao, serious 
mischief was caused by inundations. The emperor took counsel 
with the great men of the empire, who advised him to employ Kuen 
to drain off the water. For nine years Kuen was engaged upon it 
without success and was condemned to be imprisoned for life. His 
son Yu was to be appointed in his stead. At the end of nineteen 
years he succeeded in stopping the overflow and made a report upon 
the subject to the emperor." 

The historical truth of this general fact is cosidered fully proved 
not only by the work itself but by an inscription supposed to have 



70 FLOODS. 

been left by Yu on the top of the mountain Yu-lu-fun, in the dis- 
trict of Shen-shu-fu. The locality answers exactly to the very in- 
teresting description of the empire in the time of Yu, which we find 
at the opening of the second book of the Shuking. It purports to 
be a public document relating particularly to Yu aud his works, 
which some suppose to have been made in his reign, or drawn up 
shortly after his death, in which, doubtless, they are mistaken. 
One critic says it will bear comparison with the monument Ancy- 
ranum of Augustus. You can judge of the epic character of the 
Shuking in the canon of Yu from the following in relation to the 
floods : — 

" The emperor said : O thou governor of the four mountains of the empire 1 
The swelling flood is producing mischief; 
It extends itself far and wide; 
It surrounds the hills, it overflows the dams; 
Impetuously rushing along it rises up to heaven; 
The common folk complain and sigh." 

The urgency of the matter necessitates the appointment of Kuen, 
who sets himself earnestly to work, but, at the end of nine years, 
has accomplished scarcely anything in restraining the floods. The 
emperor, now in his seventieth year, promises his throne to any 
one who will prevent the evil. Yu-shin, an unmarried man, is pro- 
posed ; which is clearly a mythical combination of Yu and Shin, in 
order to connect the great deliverer with the two old emperors, 
Yao and Shin. Afterwards the person chosen is called simply, 
Yu. The punishment of Kuen is mentioned in the second chap- 
ter, " the Canon of Shin." Under the head of " the Deliberations 
of Yu, the Great," the emperor thanks Yu in the following 
terms: " In the time of the great floods thou didst perform thy 
promise and complete thy work ;" a quite important piece of in- 
formation for Yu. 

The apparent character of the stories in the Shuking would 
lead to the conclusion that they are a compilation of historical 
ballads and authenic records. The historical ballad is the later 
form and is in several places at variance with historical facts. 

The story in the Shuking might be thought a misrepresentation, 
in so far as regards any personal connection between Yao and Yu. 
The latter is made to save the country from the great inundation in 
the time of Yao, when he was viceroy of certain provinces, by 



CHINESE ORIGINES. 71 

erecting dams and tunneling canals through rocks, etc., and then 
after Yao and Shin are both dead he becomes king himself and en- 
joys a long reign. This, after consideration and comparison of the 
authorities, might he thought impossible. For the difference be- 
tween the commencements of the reigns, respectively, of Yao and 
Yu is as follows : — 

According to Semakuang 2357 and 2207 = 150 years. 
" " Panku 2303 " 2183 = 120 « 

" " Bambus-Book 2147 " 1991 = 156 " 

While this last authority is deemed the best on the subject it is 
seen that in it there is a greater difference than in the others. 

Now, while there is no reason to doubt the historical existence of 
Yu the Great, any more than there is that of Csesar or Tamerlane,- 
still there is no confidence, historically speaking, to be .placed in 
the inscription, spoken of above, as left by Yu upon the mountain 
Yu-lu-fun, which is of the same class and sprung from the same 
source as that of some of the so-called historical ballads in the 
Shuking. The inscription itself, however, which is quite ancient, 
evinces the great antiquity of writing in China ; for the characters 
in which it is written are perfectly conventional and the meaning 
is quite clear. The French version made of it by Father Amiot is 
a transcript of the simple text in which considerable interpolation 
has been made, as an examination of the original proves. Of this 
original, which is pure ancient Chinese, von Klaproth's is the first 
which deserves to be called a translation, and some parts, even of 
it, might be rendered more accurately. 

In it " the venerable emperor, Yao, tells his assistant and coun- 
sellor how that the lowlands and valleys are overflowed and noth- 
ing but the mountain tops, the forests, and caverns are out of the 
water. He enjoins upon him, as a care, to open such channels as 
will let off the water and to provide measures against the overflow. 
He complains of having been long necessitated to live apart from 
his house, upon the top of Yo-lu, his body being consumed with 
anxiety and with a restless spirit. He walked to and fro ; he set- 
tled; he ordained. He declared emphatically that Shoo-a, Yo, 
Tai, Shen are the beginning and end of his numerous works. How- 
ever, his task is now completed : he has offered his sacrifice in the 
second month ; his trouble is at an end, the dark destiny being 



72 FRESHETS. 

changed ; the streams of the south now flow down to the sea ; 
clothing is now to be had; food is in store; the people are freed 
from anxiety and all enjoy themselves in mirthf ulness and dancing." 

All this refers to the wonted rising and outbreak of several 
streams in the northern part of the now empire of China, not to 
any general overflow of water throughout the whole of the country ; 
and the confusion of the missionaries arises from their understand- 
ing this event as referring to the Flood of Noah, to which at least 
similarly to either the Hebrew, Chaldaean or even Hindu records 
the Chinese annals do not refer. 

This Yu, whose name is spelled in Chinese with the same signs 
as that which they have translated Yao, and whose date is given 
above, was, as said before, the founder of the first dynasty of the 
Chinese, which is reckoned by the moderns as strictly historic. 
With him they begin the history proper. His dynasty is called 
that of Hia. There is, however, no good reason to doubt the his- 
torical character of Yao, which is understood to be proved by an 
astronomical passage in the Slinking, translated by Ideler. 

In the first chapter of Yao the four Zoadical signs are recorded, 
namely, the equinoxes and the solstices, with which, in his time 
the four cardinal points of the year coincided. Of these, two still 
bear the same name ; and an explanation of the other two is found 
in a tradition emanating from learned men in the time of the Han. 
Ideler having computed the constellations backward for 4000 
years, from 1837 A. D. to 2163 B. C, found the latter date to differ 
by only sixteen years (2163 instead of 2147) from the date given in 
the Bambus Book for the commencement of Yao's reign. That is, 
the year 2163 would be 16 years prior to his accession. If he be- 
began his reign in 2147 and reigned, as given in the tradition, 101 
years he ended his reign in 2046 B. C, at which time his son-in- 
law, Shin, would have come to the throne, intermediately between 
him and Yu, our first so-called historic dynast. As seen above, 
according to Panku, Yao, began his reign in 2303 and so ended in 
2202 B. C. ; and, according to the Semakuang, he reigned from 
2357 to 2256 B. C. About the year 2000 B. C, therefore, did 
(with the grace of our modern permission) the historic dynasties 
begin to exist in China ; all preceding which we, of course, decide 
to have been mythical; our Yu being a trifle later than Menes. 

But, in regard to Ideler's calculation, the Jesuit Gaubil says 
that very little reliance can be placed on that astronomical entry 



CHINESE OKIGINES. 73 

in the Shuking in connection with the reign of Yao, because we 
cannot be sure that the place of the stars was at that time accurately 
calculated. Freret, also, thinks there is an uncertainty to the ex- 
tent of three degrees, which would leave a margin of 210 years. It 
is understood, however, that Gaubil was obliged to be circumspect, 
for it is stated on good authority, that in compliance with orders 
from Rome, the Jesuits did not venture to dwell too much upon 
the antiquity of observations or other data which antedated the 
Flood. Ideler's computation appears, on the whole, effectual and 
trustworthy and to furnish the data here sought for in connection 
with the entries in the Chinese history. 

Freret says that, according to the most ancient account in the 
Shuking, Chap. Y. hiun, of the 12th month of the first year of 
Taikin, the second ruler of the Shang (second dynasty) the only 
chronological systems respecting the commencement of Yao's 
reign, on which reliance can be placed, are those of the Bambus- 
Book and the Semakuang. But even thus there is still the 
discrepancy between 2147 and 2357. In order, therefore, to the 
more definite determination of the date it is felt that recourse 
must be had to the oldest astronomical data possibly attain- 
able. 

From the entry in the 12th moon of the first year of Taikin, the 
second king of the Shang, who according to the Annals reigned 
from 1753 to 1721, the date of Yao's accession must have been 
either 2357, as according to the Semakuang and the Annals, or 
2147, as according to the Bambus Book, for which last date Freret 
has 2145. 

Some might suppose the chronological date, 2348 B. C, given 
at She head of the middle column of Genesis VIII-X., as for the 
approximate time of the occurrence of the Deluge, had been made 
out to suit the date of 2357 of the Semakuang for the accession of 
Yao, who thus, instead of Yu, would stand for Noah.* But it is by 



*The following article, which I find in a daily paper, the St. 
Louis Republican, of March 16th, 1888, as it has been copied into 
the newspapers generally from the North China Daily News, 
shows that the valley of the Yellow River is as yet subject to some 
such freshets as it has been of old, and that there is yet need 
occasionally of such engineers as we may suppose Yu the son of 
K"en to have been to restrain the floods, without our necessarily 



74 FLOODS. 

no means certain, nor have I ever seen it mooted, that our chronolo- 
gist, Usher, had in his mind either Yao or Yu, as being the 
patriarch Noah. Nothing, probably, can be made out of the sur- 



thinking him to have been equal in engineering skill to the patriarch 
Noah : — 

YELLOW RIVER OVERFLOW. 

OVER SIXTY THOUSAND MEN EMPLOYED IN REPAIRING THE BREAKS — TWENTY 
MILLION TAELS TO BE SPENT IN RIVER IMPROVEMENTS. 

The North China Daily News has made an interesting discovery. Those who 
are familiar with the map of China know that the Yellow River, as it existed a few 
months ago, after running from north to south, suddenly turned nearly due east, 
and held this course along the northern part of the province of Honan, emerging 
from which and entering Shantung, it took a northeasterly direction, ultimately 
emptying into the Gulf of Petchili. What happened on the occasion of the recent 
catastrophe was that the river burst its banks about the middle point of its journey 
through Honan, and turning southward spread itself over that province, or made 
its way to the Yangtse via the Grand Canal and other minor routes. Shantung, 
therefore, ceased to receive its waters, aud large tracts of land in the latter prov- 
ince consequently became arable. It was generally supposed by foreigners that 
in none of its previous escapades had the river taken this route through Honan, 
and that as the natural configuration of the country seemed to lend itself to the 
river's new course, any attempt to restore it to its old channel must prove a failure. 
But it has now been discovered, by reference to Baron Richthofen's letters, pub- 
lished in 1870, that two years previously (18G8) the Yellow River burst its banks at 
a point only ten miles higher up stream th;in the present breach, and poured out 
its waters over practically the very region now immersed. The only difference was 
one of degree. In 18G8 the breach was comparatively small, the depth of the inunda- 
tion was much less and the loss of life was insignificant. The government suc- 
ceeded in repairing the bank aud restraining the river in its former chaunel at a 
cost of 2,000,000 taels. On the present occasion it is proposed to spend 20,000,000, 
and there seems to be no valid reason why the restoration of the river to its old 
course should not be effected. 

No one seems able to determine what shall be done with the Yellow River. The 
question remains in statu quo, aud the river too. The mischievous stream made 
its way, as our readers will remember, into the low-lying lands of Honan and 
Anhui, which it converted into a lake, while at the same time large tracts of land 
in Shantung, formerly covered by its waters, have now become cultivable. 
Whether the balance is one of loss or of gain to the Chinese Empire has not yet 
been determined. But how is the river to be dealt with? Some hold that the 
course now taken by the stream is that indicated by nature. Dr. Williamson, who 
ought to be competent to speak, maintains this view. The river now, he says, runs 
through "lakes which can in a measure receive its overflow, through a vast area 
which it can irrigate, and through a natural channel throughout its whole length to 
the sea." He therefore advocates encouraging the river to remain in the course 
which it has taken. But this theory, sensible as it souuds, has one drawback ; no 
one is in a position to say where a natural channel to the sea does exist from the 
lakes into which the river has poured itself, aud from the areas it has inundated. 



CHINESE ORIGINES. 75 

face similarity of the forms, Yao and Noah, or of the connected 
forms Yao and Shin with Noah and Shem ; for, although the N and 
the Y both in the Indo-European and Semitic languages may be un- 
derstood as having arisen from the G, yet the subject is of such 
antiquity, the Chinese being justly regarded as the base of them 
both, we can only say here the words may have had a distinct origin, 



On the contrary, the evidence goes to show that as yet no considerable volume of 
the errant waters has found an outlet seawards. 

An engineer, J. C. Fergusson, who lately paid a visit to the river, recommends 
the formation, along its upper course, of huge reservoirs. Into these the overflow 
could be turned in flood seasons, and when the river fell again the water in the 
reservoirs would flow back, free of silt, materially helping to scour and cut out 
the channel. Nature herself employs this system of reservoirs. Examples of them 
are furnished in China by the Tung-ting and Poyang lakes, which in summer are 
actual inland lakes, but in winter become vast expanses of sand with little streams 
creeping through them. It is, however, objected to this scheme that the reservoirs 
would occupy as much land as the river bed has now flooded, some 5,000,000 acres, 
and that the remedy would not be permanent, since new reservoirs would be 
required so soon as the old tilted up. It is evident that the essential preliminary 
to any sound plan is a survey by competent engineers, and this the Chinese 
authorities have not yet ordered, though they seem to be growing sensible of the 
Necessity. 

The Tsing Kian Pu correspondent of the Temperance Union writes, under date of 
January 23, as follows: There are now 60,000 or upwards of men at work on the 
old bed of the Yellow Eiver. Of these about 10,000 are in the vicinity of this 
city. The channel opened seems to a casual observer very narrow, but according 
to statements given by those eugaged in the work it will be of considerable depth. 
The aim is to get the whole channel ready before the freshets next summer. From 
what I am able to learn the breaches in Honan are being closed, and the bank will 
be opeued at the proper place to let the water into the old channel when ready for 
it. A few days ago I saw more than 30,000 taels of silver wheeled out to pay the 
workmen. They are paid 164 cash per day and find their own food. 

A Tientsin journal states that the number of Yellow River flood refugees, most 
of whom are in a most pitiable condition, tormented both by hunger and cold, is 
about 110,000, and until the spring sets in no diminution can take place. A meet- 
ing was held on January 16 at Tientsin, attended by a trood number of prominent 
foreign residents, when it was resolved that subscription lists shall be sent to the 
foreign community, appealing for their charitable contributions. We find it also 
stated that the native officials, gentry and traders have given large benefactions 
this year in particular to the poor. Various soup-kitchens have been opened, at 
one of which 6,000 people daily receive two substantial meals. 

The Chinese Times says: All inquiries tend to show that about a third of China 
north of the Yellow River is suffering more or less acute distress, and in Houan 
and Anhwe large parts of these governments are under water and are likely to 
remain so for some years. The only remedy possible is to take the people away 
and put them into new countries, such as Manchuria, which can readily receive a 
few million people, who might in a few months support themselves and in a few 
years become prosperous citizens. 



76 LANGUAGE. 

and from different circumstances. The Chinese language is far re- 
moved from the Egyptian formation, which a comparison of the 
original languages and a study of their progressive development 
shows as compared with it to represent the middle ages of mankind, 
the Turanian and Chamitic stages of development. For proofs of 
the vast antiquity which even the numerous records of language 
compel us to assign to the origines of the Chinese, search may be still 
made in other quarters than in the extant chronology recognized 
as standard. Owing, indeed, to the great antiquity of the histori- 
cal records of the Old Testament, especially the patriarchal, it was 
found at an early period in the progress of the inquiry that China was 
remarkably deficient in authentic, contemporaneous monuments of 
anyperiod prior to the historical commencementof connected Hebrew 
chronology. It may have been from the unchronological charac- 
ter of the period prior to Yao, that Confucius does not, in his com- 
mentary, dwell upon this period. The reigns which have been 
ascribed to it, to a greater or less number, appear from an analysis 
of the fragments to be rather of a traditionary character. 

The reigns of Yao and Shin constitute, in the modern cnrono- 
logical sense, the Second Period, being the transition from what 
they call the mythic to the historical. It is usually computed at 
150 years ; but the Bambus-Book allows them 156 years of reign. 
As seen above, according to the Balladic version of the Shuking, 
these two rulers are not only placed in historical connection with 
each other but with the founder of the first historic dynasty, whom 
they call Yu or Ta-Yu ; the great and good Yu ; others, Pankee, 
for instance, (as is supposed in order to render this somewhat the 
less apparently improbable) have reduced this period, the latter, at 
least, to 120 years. There is here apparently a gap which they 
have been trying to patch up : and the historical and imperial 
chronology commences with Yu. To the original seat of the race, 
the northern district of Shen-si, pertains the particular history of 
Yao and Shin, and it is not certain that they were personally con- 
nected. 



CHINESE ORIGINES. 77 

The Imperial Dynasties of the Chinese from 2000 B. C. to 

264 A. D. : 

The following are the dates of the canon in the Barnbus-Book of 
the third Epoch ; the Imperial Dynasties. 

Years. Beginning. 
I. Dynasty Hia, First Emperor Yu ; B. C. 

Duration 432 1991 

II. Dynasty Shang, First Emperor, 
twenty-eight reigns in fifteen gen- 
erations. Duration 509 1559 

III. Dynasty Tsheu, length of the first 

eleven reigns 269 1050 

Twelfth King, Yeu Yang : his year 
is the identical day and year of the 
eclipse of the sun of 776 B. C, as re- 
corded in the Shu-King, consequently 
his first year is 781. Under this dy- 
nasty lived Confucius, who calculated 
the solar eclipses between 720 and 481 
B.C. (551-479). 

Tears. Beginning. 
B. C. 

IV. Dynasty Tsin. Duration 255-207 =49 255 
V. Dynasty Han. Duration from 206 

B. C. to 264 A. D 470 206 

to 
A. D. 
264 

As to the Chinese Cycles of 60 Years ; of 19 Years ; of 
129,600 Years ; and as to Their Cycles Generally as well 
as Their Achievements in Astronomy in very Early Times : 

The astronomical cycle of 60 years which we have seen first 
mentioned in the 61st year of Hoang-Ti and the 77th recurrence 
of which, it is said, will happen in 1924 A. D., appears to have 
been a primitive institution of the Chinese and a key to their astron- 



78 CYCLES. 

oniical calculations. A consideration of the Chaldaean and Egyp- 
tian systems, in connection with that of the Chinese, leads to the 
conclusion of the greater antiquity of the latter as a primitive and 
very simple equation of lunar and solar years. 

The Egyptian periods, called Trikontasterida?, or festivals held 
every thirty years, are thought to be explainable by the cycle of 
60 years, which is supposed to have been divided into two parts in 
order to give each king the opportunity of having them celebrated 
in his reign. In his work on Isis and Osiris (c. 75), Plutarch un- 
questionably alludes to this cycle, when he says that the sixty eggs 
of the crocodile and the sixty years that it lived were admitted by 
persons skilled in astronomy to be symbolical, to be the first meas- 
ure or lowest unit of the equation of time. At the end of every 
60 years there was a difference of half a month between the fixed 
tropical and the vague civil year. When Martini asserts that the 
Egyptians computed by the Era of 60 years of Hoangho? he doubt- 
less ment Hoang-Ti. 

We find the Indians to have commenced their cycles with the rude 
equation of five years ; but it is supposed they made use of one of 
12X5 or 60 years as a corrective formula. But there is no proof of 
their being acquainted with the Chaldee cycle of 600 years, which 
evidently belongs to a date posterior to that people's having made a 
remarkable advancement in science. 

But, in regard to the Chinese, Ideler (p. 214) has fully estab- 
lished that they used a lunar year, which they regulated by the 
solar year of 365^ days. It is, also, satisfactorily proven that they 
used a sexagesinal cycle for days, months (of 5 years, 5X12=60) 
and years. The cycle for days implies a year of 6X60=360 days, 
as well as a fixed lunar year. Their Metonic cycle of 19 years, 
equaling 235 synodic months (that is, 19X12 = 228+7 intercallary 
months), only occurs after the time of Han, whose dynasty em- 
braced the beginning of the Christian era. Still they must have 
used, prior to that time, a cycle for the same purpose of equation, 
and everything tends to the conclusion that it was one of 60 years ; * 
for the cycle of 60 days can be explained by it ; and the cycle of 60 
yeaVs must have been so arranged that after a certain period the 
annual cycle was again coincident with the first daily cycle. There 
appears, it is true, no direct mention of it in the Shuking; and the 



♦That is, 60 years=60X 12=720+22 [intercallary mouths] =742 months. 



CHINESE ORIGINES. 79 

notation of the Annals by means of it after the time of Yao, as 
appears in their present arrangement, may have been afterwards 
introduced by calculation. Yet, even if not in use therein, it is 
universally admitted that this system is well adapted to the old 
chronology. 

One circumstance is seen by Ideler to be explained by it, which 
he fails to perceive is explainable in any other way ; this is, that the 
year so arranged by Yu gradually got into such disorder, that, in- 
stead of beginning at the sign of Aquarius, it receded into the sign 
of Sagittarius. 

In the idea of Freret it must have been computed as follows : 60 
solar years=742 months — 2 days and 20 hours. Therefore, in 600 
years= 7420 months — 28^ days=l small lunar month of 29 days 
with far less error than the Julian intercallary period, which is 1 
day in excess every 125 years. 

Now, as made out from Ideler (78 seq. ) the following divisions 
of time were in use among the Chaldaeans : — 

1. The year of 12 years, the Annus Chaldaeaus of Censorinus, for 
the fertility of the years. Scaliger found that the 12 yearly zodiacal 
cycle, which is in use among the Tartars, Mongols, Mandschus* 
Igurians, the Thibetans, Japanese and Siamese, dated from the 
earliest times. Among some of the Tartaric peoples, however, this 
is a cycle of 60 years (12X5). 

2. The cycles of 60 years — 600 years — 3600 years. 

Sossos Neros Saros 

When we find, in connection with this system, that 600 years 
give an excess of one lunar month with much greater accuracy 
than the Julian year, we conclude it probable that this cycle must 
have been in use among the Chinese, it being indispensable where 
that of 60 years was in use ; or it must have been in use with those 
from whom they borrowed the latter. 

The Saros cycle of 6X600=3600 years does not pertain to the 
equation of the year of 365| days with the lunations. Wherever 
the lunar year was the one in general use it was only necessary to 
intercallate months not years as was the case with the Egyptians. 

The Chinese Cosmic year of 129,600 years mentioned by Shao- 



80 CYCLES. 

Kang-tsi and Tshu-hi (Neuman, p. 59), also implies the periods of 
60 and 600 years : — 

For 129,600=6X6X6=216X600 

= 2160X60: Then 2160=6x360, 

a multiple which hardly can he accidental. 

It is generally admitted that the year of 360 days has in it so 
much astronomical significance that it must have been a good deal 
recognized in the ancient calculations. For, first, 360=12X30; 
and, secondly, the three decades into which the month is divided 
imply a reference to 30, the number of days in a month as being 
the standard for the year. In the " little " month the decade con- 
sists of only nine days. 

Now, it being admitted that the Chinese, from the earliest times, 
made use of a sexagesimal cycle for the division of the year=6x60 
days, and that they marked the years by a cycle of 60 years, run- 
ning concurrently with the cycle of days, what, it may be asked, 
have we to learn from this? 

1st. We conclude that this cycle must have been instituted orig- 
inally at a time when the first day of the daily cycle coincided with 
the first year of the annual cycle, that is, when they commenced on 
the same day. 

To find out when this was some think impossible, owing to the 
irregularity of the old calendar; but it might, possibly, by the 
patient collection and collation of the ancient data be ultimately 
ascertained. 

In regard to astronomical observations, for example, Laplace 
found that the notice about the size of the sun's shadow, as ob- 
served by the viceroy Tsheu-Kung, about 1100 B. C, was singu- 
larly correct. By this prince, the brother of Wuwang, the founder 
of the Tsheu dynasty, was the shadow measured at the solstice. 

Of the most ancient astronomical entry in the Shuking (chap. 
Y hittn) the date, according to Gaubil (in his Lettres Edifiantes, 
pp. 322; comp. 272) is the first year of Tai-Kia, the second 
ruler of the Shang. But the most important entry is in the first 
chapter of that record. The signs of the four cardinal points of 
the year are there noted in the reign of Yao. By inspection and 
calculation Ideler found that they were exactly correct for a period 
of about 4000 years before 1837 A. D., that is, to about 2163 B. 



CHINESE ORIGINES. 81 

C. ; and this, according to the most trusted authorities, as seen 
above, is near the time set down for Yao's reign. But, accor Jing 
to the chronology of the celestial empire now in use, which has been 
framed on no sufficiently limited basis, it is placed in the year 
2300 B. C. 

If after sufficient research and accumulation an attempt should 
be made to fix the ancient chronology care should be taken that 
the data be properly understood. It is easy, for instance, to calcu. 
late backwards eclipses of the sun as the Romans, Greeks and 
Egyptians have done. But phenomena of rare occurrences, which 
are difficult to calculate, such as the conjunctions of the planets, 
must be either contemporary notices of some extraordinary phe- 
nomena or sheer inventions. 

One instance that may be mentioned is the observation of a con- 
junction of five planets (among which the sun and moon are spoken 
of) on the first day of Leitshin in the reign of Tsheuen-hiu, the 
second successor of Hoang-Ti. 

Suppose this were the conjunction of the three upper planets, to 
which Kepler first directed his attention in reference to the date of 
Christ's birth, and which occurs every 794 years and four months; 
then it occurred in the following years: — 

7 years, 4 mos. 12 da. A. D. 

786 " 6 " 00 " B. C. 

1580 " 10 " 12 " B. C. 

2375 " 2 '< 24 " B. C. 

This last date might answer to the conjunction in the time of 
Tscheuen-hiu; for, according to the official Chinese Tables, as 
given in Ideler's work, he reigned from 2513 to 2436 ; but the 
dates vary to the extent of more than 200 years and the year 2375 
conies within the limits of these fluctuations. 



As to the Primitive Divisions of the Year Among the 

Chinese : 

On this most of our information is derived from Gaubil and is as 
follows : — 

1. In the s nd dynasty the day commenced at mid-day. The 
founder of the third dynasty, Wee-wang, fixed it at midnight. 

6 



82 CHINESE YEAR. 

2. The week of seven days (Zi = 7) is proved by the 28 lunar 
stations to be of great antiquity among the Chinese, but it was by 
them only for astrological purposes. It plainly depended, orig- 
inally upon the four lunar phases, but in China, as elsewhere, it 
was connected with a certain succession of the planets. Gaubil says 
Confucius mentions the Zi-week as being in use in the time of 
Tsheu, the third dynasty : 

3. Their solar year of 365|- days the Chinese began to reckon 
from the day of the winter solstice, which they fixed by observa- 
tion of the longest shadow on the ground at midday. 

4. Their civil year commenced at the lunar month in which the 
sun entered Pisces. This is determined by the conjunction in 
Aquarius. The beginning of the first moon is the new moon in 
Aquarius, consequently the vernal equinox is the full moon of the 
second moon, the Autumnal equinox the full moon of the eighth. 
With the full moon of the fifth and tenth months the solstice coin- 
cides. 

The Chinese have four seasons of three months each, being the 
first, second and third moons of each season. They are divided 
into six sections (zi tshi) of 15 to 16 days. Hence they divide the 
ecliptic into 24 equal parts, each containing half a sign. 

1. Zi tshi. Winter Solstice, Dec. 21= beginning of Capricorn. 
4. " Beginning of Spring, Feb. 5 = middle of Capri- 
corn = 45 days before the vernal equinox. Sid- 
suen = the first new moon of the year. 
7. " Vernal equinox = March 22 = beginning of Aries. 
10. " Beginning of Summer, May 5 = middle of Tauros. 
13. " Summer Solstice, June 22 = beginning of Cancer, 
ll). " Beginning of Autumn, Aug. 5 = middle of Leo. 
19. " Autumnal equinox, Sept. 22 = beginning of Libra. 
22. " Beginning of Winter, Nov. 5 = middle of Sagi- 
tharius. 

The beginning of their civil year, as above is seen in the month 
nearest to the middle of Aquarius, is said to have been instituted 
by Tshuen-hiu (2513-2436 B. C), that is, one of the kings prior to 
Yu, the first historical dynast, so called. 

The great Yu farther ordained that the first mcmth of Spring, 
that is, the mouth in which the sun entered into Pisces (Gaubil, 



CHINESE ORIGINES. 83 

Traite, 21), should be the first of the year, consequently 45 days 
before the equinox, equal to Feb. 5th. In the Annals it is stated 
that during the second dynasty, Shang (1766-1154 B. C.) the be- 
ginning of the civil year was moved forward one month, that is to 
about Jan. 7th, consequently the year began when the sun entered 
the sign of Aquarius. 

In the third dynasty, Tsheu (1122-314 B. C.) if was again 
brought forward a month, and, therefore, it began in the month in 
which the sun entered Capricorn or about Dec. 7th. This is based 
upon old traditions and notices of solar eclipses, which have been 
preserved in the commentary of Zo-Tshuen upon Confucius' Annals 
of the collateral dynasty, which commentary was written about the 
year 500 B. C. 

In the time of the Tsin ( 255-207 B. C. ) the beginning of the year 
was pushed back one sign (Ideler, N.): but it would seem, not 
withstanding, that the system of Yu was always adhered to, namely, 
that the month with which the year commenced should be called 
the vernal month. In the time of the Tsheu, therefore, the begin- 
ning of Spring in the civil calendar fell in the middle of Saggittarius 
or about Nov. 7th. 

All these changes are explainable by the cycle of 60 years, in 
which every 600 years had an error of one month. 

Taking the year 2200 as the beginning of the first dynasty Hia, 
then: — 

month was lost at the year 1600 : 

2 months were " " " " 1000: 

3 " " (<'<<< << 400: 

This took place under the Tshin (255-207) and must have oc- 
curred after 256 and before 206 (the year in which the Han suc- 
ceeded). 

From a variety of considerations it appears that the supposed 
beginning of the reign of Yu cannot be sustained. It is, however, 
worthy of remark that the great solar eclipse mentioned in the 
Annals as occurring during the reign of Shin (the immediate pre- 
decessor of Yu) took place on the 25th of October, 2007, which, 
according to the most trusted authority, was the 16th year before 
the accession of Yu. Granting this assumption to be correct (i.e., 
that 1991 B. C.=the first year of the first recognized historic dy- 



84 PERIODS. 

nasty) and calling this beginning in round numbers 2000 B. C, we 
shall have those periods to have commenced in the years : — 

2000 — 1400 — 800 — 200 : 

which last is nearly the first year of the Tsin. During the reign 
of this dynasty (48 years) a permanent improvement was made in 
the calendar. 




HINDOO ORIGINES. 85 



Concerning the Origines, the Primitive History and Chro- 
nology of the Hindoos. 

Of these peoples the origines and early history are found to be 
somewhat obscure. They are of the Arian stock and came into 
the country in the very early ages from those northern districts, 
which in those times or in the later times in books were called Iran 
(i.e., Airya). 



The Four Cosmic Ages of the Hindoos and Their Rational 
Analysis in the Light of the Historic Records of the Hin- 
doos Left Us by Megasthenes, Arrian and Others: 

I will begin with their exhibit of the four Cosmic ages, so-called. 

According to Mauu, the patriarch of the human race, the world 
had passed through three ages, and this being so, as a-natural con- 
sequence, we have been living in the fourth age from or from be- 
fore the time of Mauu. The synopsis is as follows : — 

Years. 
Satya (Krita), 4,800 years of Gods, reckoned each at 

360 human years = 1,728,000 

Treta, 3,600 years of Gods, each 360 human years. . = 1,296,000 

Dvapara, 2,400 years of Gods = 864,000 

Kali, 1,200 " " " = 432,000 



Total, 4,320,000 



86 COSMIC AGES. 

In the first book of Manu these names are explained as follows : — 

I. Truth Prevailing Piety. 

II. The three Sacrificial Flames Knowledge. 

III. Doubt Sacrificial Worship. 

IV. Sins Liberality. 

Max Mueller and Lassen thought the original reference in this 
system of Cosmic Ages was to the changes of the moon ; but if 
there were any such reference it must have been an indirect one, 
for the arbitrary make up simply indicates ages in some sort, 
mythical, of course, but made out in an astronomical way. It is 
allowed that myth implies history as a counterfeit implies an orig- 
inal, or a false God a true one ; but the question which concerns ns 
here is how far back into the antiquity does the history of India, 
which we have, give us a connected thread? Even the old hymns 
of that country imply a great antiquity for its history, as well as 
the hundreds of years of cataclysms, which separate the so-called 
historic ages from each other, imply history in some sort before 
and after those gaps. 

Proceeding to an analysis of the numbers, which make up those 
Cosmic Ages, we find the number constituting the fourth, namely, 
432,000, to be made up of 6x6x6=216X2X1,000=432,000; the. 
third age to be the double of this fourth ; the second to be its 
treble and the first its quadruple, in duration; i.e., 432,000X4= 
1,728,000 years, which is the number of years given for the first 
age. 

The best source of information concerning a connected ancient 
history of India is the information of that sort left by Megasthenes, 
a Greek writer. He has the reputation of having been well learned 
and generally well accomplished for his age. After the short war 
which had place between Seleucus Nicanor and Sandrokottus 
(Kandragupta) a King of India, he went as envoy for Nicanor to 
the court of the latter at Palibothra, where he accomplished his 
mission cleverly and effected besides a matrimonial alliance. The 
information he sets out to convey, then, concerning ancient India is 
supposed to be derived from headquarters and his statements on 
that ancient subject, especially as contained in Arrian, are the main 
source from which the Greeks and Romans since the 'time of the 
latter have derived their information on that subject. 



HINDOO ORIGINES. 87 

Megasthenes begins his account by stating that between the reign 
of Dionysos (whom he makes his first historic King of India, and 
who was succeeded by Spatembas) and that of Sandrakottus there 
were 153 Kings. The best Mss. of Pliny gave the same number as 
does Ariian. These are said to have reigned 6042 years ; but, ac- 
cording to Pliny's copy, 6452. The critics consider they have 
some reason to think Pliny's statement the more correct one. 

In the sentence whereof these statements now given form a part 
there are a few words wanting ; but Duncker and other eminent 
critics conclude the sense to be that the succession of kings in that 
long period was thrice broken by the introduction of a government 
of the people, which Diodorus in two parallel passages calls a dem- 
ocracy in the separate cities or states. We also learn that the dur- 
ations of these interruptions were, respectively, the first for 200, 
the second for 300 and the last for 120 years. Deducting the sum 
of these, that is, 620 from 6452 years we have left 5832 years, 
which being divided by 153, the number of kings, gives 38 years 
of average reign, which, being somewhat too large an average for 
experience, plainly indicates there is something wrong at the bot- 
tom of the calculation. For such a long period experience shows 
the average reign would not probably be over 26 to 28 years at the 
most, which last average would allow to the 153 kings an aggregate 
of 4284 years ; while an average of 20 years, which might appear 
to experience just as reasonable, and which is two years more tha n 
Sir Isaac Newton found to be the average length of reign of mon- 
archs, would give to the 153 kings an aggregate of 3060 years. 
We have no need here, therefore, of supposing contemporary, paral- 
lel lines of kings, inasmuch as the time given for the 153 kings 
would require, at our calculation, double that number of kings in 
succession to occupy it. 

Lassen supposed this list of Megasthenes to represent the three 
last Cosmic ages, beginning with Treta, but others, with perhaps 
more reason, applied it to the whole four, their argument being that 
the three breaks were caused by falls or displacements of dynasties 
in each case, and that the three breaks imply the four periods, one 
respectively for the end of the first of the second and of the third. 

The length of the reign of his first king, Dionysus, Megasthenes 
does not seem to have given. He re presents him as having found a 
rude population, clothed in skins, unacquainted with agriculture 
and without fixed habitations. To him is ascribed the introduction 



88 MYTHIC HISTORY. 

of agriculture and a degree of civilization. By a close considera- 
tion of the data given we might succeed in approximately determin- 
ing the time of the Arian immigration to India, for Dionysus is 
represented as the leader of that immigration into India, of people 
of the same identical Turanic stock as in the main were already in 
occupation of the country. Dionysus, according to Diodorus, died 
in India after he had reigned 52 years ; which term is allowed by 
the same author to his colleague and successor Spatemhas. Diony- 
sus is the celebrated God Bacchus ; whether Spatembas was after- 
wards understood as a God does not appear; but if their term 01 
reign was meant to symbolize the Zodiac or course of the sun, then 
we may suppose the number of weeks in the year was signified by 
fifty-two. 

Spatembas was succeeded by his son, Budyas, who reigned 
twenty -two years ; and he by Kradeuas. 

Fifteen generations after Dionysus reigned Hercules (Krishna): 
Diodorus represents him as having built several cities, one of 
which was Palibothra. He had many sons, to each of whom he 
left a kingdom, as well as one to his daughter, Pandara. 

Some modern interpreters understand Dionysos as the elder 
Manu, the Primeval Man, son of the Sun (Vivasvat). He appears 
to hold a somewhat similar position in the primeval history of 
India as does Gemshid (Jima) among the Iranians. According to 
Arrian no date of reign is given to him in Megasthenes. Doubt- 
less the latter understood him as a God, to a ruler of which charac- 
ter the Indians allowed 1000 years of reign. 

If Dionysus is the elder Manu, Spatembas would reasonably be 
understood as the Younger Manu (Svayambhuva, the self-existent) 
who is regarded by the Indians as the progenitor of all their kings. 

In Budyas, i.e., Buddha (Mercury, son of the moon ) husband of 
Ila (Earth) who was daughter of Spatembas, we possibly have an- 
other reign of a God represented. His name signifies the " awak- 
ened." It has been suggested that the 22 years of reign ascribed 
to him may be through mistake for 28, the four weeks of the 
phases of the moon. 

The races of the Moon are supposed by the Sanskrit lists to be 
derived from him (Kandravansa) ; and from this race are descended 
the kings of Magadha (Palibothra, Pataliputra, above Patna on the 
Ganges). According to the Book of Manu, on the other hand, the 
race of the Sun is descended from Manu. In Megasthenes' epito- 



HINDOO OEIGINES. 89 

mists the two races appear somewhat mixed up. It appears that 
the race of the Moon were not content to give precedence to that 
of the Sun, the Kings of Oude (Ayodtn-a). 

The name of the successor of Budyaa is more properly read 
Pururava than as the Greeks have it Kradeuas. It is likely Meg- 
asthenes read it Prareuas, which would have given rise to the latter 
form. Pururava means " the glorious : " He appears in the Veda 
as a mythical personage, the husband of Urvasi, a celestial water 
mymph (Apsaras or Apsara, i.e., Undine). He is represented in 
the epics as a great conqueror and powerful ruler, who, however, 
perished, as a result of his own presumption. .The system of castes 
(from Varna, color, perhaps from the castes being distinguished by 
differently colored garments) originated with him. Before his time 
the Arian people were undivided and only one God, Narayana, 
(Egj'ptiau Naharaina, Rivers ?) was worshiped. At the confluence of 
the Jumna and Ganges, namely, Allahabad, was his royal residence. 
All this is supposed to be the tradition of the learned men at the 
court of Sandrokottus. 

The ruler in the fifteenth succession was Krishna, whom the 
Greeks call the Indian Hercules, and who was especially worshiped 
in the country of the Surasens. He is the king in the land of the 
Prasians (the Easterns) having his royal residence at Mathura, 
Weber thinks that the notion of his posterity being descended from 
him and his own late-born daughter Pandaea is but a misunder- 
standing of the old myth of the creation of the world in connection 
with a female. The probable historical sense of it, as it appears 
also in the Pragapati, is that the renowned race of Pandava, with 
whose downfall the third era concluded, or perhaps the princely 
house of Pandiva (Pandya) whose residence was Madura (later 
Mathura), in the Southern country of the Ganges, were descended 
from Krishna's daughter. Sir Win. Jones (Works, vol. IV. 209) 
says the Sacred books expressly place an Avatara between the first 
and second eras. This impersonation, which does not exist in the 
Vedas is Krishna. It is probable, also, that Rama, the third divine 
hero, the extirpator of the royal races, is introduced between the 
second and third eras. This position of Rama is discovered by 
Lassen from the tradition to have been quite ancient. 

Megasthenes, then, represents his first era as of fifteen or sixteen 
generations, having a God as the founder and a God as the destroyer 
of the dynasty. 



90 PRIMEVAL HISTORY. 

Now, the Arian tradition represents not Krishna as succeeding 
to Pururava, of the race of the moon, but Ayus, whose son, Nahu- 
sha (the man, human?), is represented as being under the ban on 
account of his overbearing character. Upon the death of his grand- 
son, the much esteemed Yayati, the partition of the world takes 
place. To his youngest son, Puru, he left his kingdom and to his 
other four sons he distributed the rest of the earth. In this matter 
his sons were treated like the three sons of Feredun, who, when 
the partition of the earth took place among them, as according to 
Firdusi, the youngest, Iredsh, obtains Iran, the home country; 
and the other two, Selm and Tur, obtain the western and eastern 
countries respectively, the latter having for his share Turkestan 
and Tshin (China). This, in the mind of some, would indicate not 
only the settlement of China and Mandchuria, but the western 
countries of Europe also by the Iranians. The four other sons of 
Yayati are named in order : Yadu, the father of Yadava, people of 
the south; Turvasu, the father of lawless races, with whom some 
of the books connect the Yavana; Druhyn, the ancestor of the 
inhabitants of the deserts by the sea, who had no kings; Ann, the 
patriarch of the northern people. 

These four primeval names occur in the hymns of the Rigveda 
in the same order. Max Muller suggested that Turvasu might 
contain the tribal name of Turan and Turk. In the battle song of 
the Rigveda, Turvasa is the leader of the races who are the enemies 
of Indra ; and in the Zend books the Turanians are styled Firdusi's 
Tuirya, i.e., the foes of Firdusi, king of the Iranians. The south- 
east of India doubtless pertained to this race, being inhabited from 
the Vindya mountains by Turanian races. 

But to Aim the dominion of the north is given. It is thought 
the Bactrians are meant or the Assyrians, and it is a remarkable 
coincidence that the name of the ancestor of the Assyrian kings 
was Ami, which was also the name of a god of the Assyrians. 

But, according to the Indian tradition, the patriarch, Yayati, 
reigned a thousand years. He is supposed to represent the interval 
between the era of the primeval or mythical world and the begin- 
nings of history proper, or it might mean a transition from one 
mythic period to another, the name meaning " advancement," 
"progress." If the period of fourteen or sixteen rulers, over 
which we have passed, represent the first period, then it ended with 



HINDOO ORIGINES. 91 

a kingdom in the Punjab , of which only very vague reminiscences 
have been preserved, and then ensues a democracy after it for 200 
years, as according to Megasthenes. 

The Sarasvati Kingdoms begin our second era, whose great heroes 
are the Bharata ; and the Ramayana is the epic representation of it 
and its violent end. To this era ensues a democracy of 300 
years. 

In the third era, the Pankala (the five races), the conquerors of 
the Bharatidae struggle with the Kuru and the latter again with 
the Pandava, after whose war of extermination the last era en- 
sues. 

As, according to Megasthenes, the first era closes with Krishna- 
Hercules, so apparently does the second with Rama ; and as the 
Ramayana is the epode of this second period, so is the Mahabharata 
of the third. The mutual contentions of the princes themselves 
here bring about their own downfall. 

According to our application there should 120 years intervene 
between the third and fourth eras ; but in some of the Parsee books 
there appears here again the mythical period of 1000 years, which 
simply means that the duration of the interval could not, at the 
time of the making of the list, be exactly determined. 

Our assumption, then, of the Cosmic eras being representations, 
in some sort, of dynastic periods, and the intervening periods rep- 
resenting governments of the people, it is plain that down to the 
end of the third era, what information we have concerning those 
dynasties is rather of a shadowy character and without a chrono- 
logy. 

In regard to the chronological starting point of the Fourth Period 
it was found the Brahmimical starting point of 3102 B. C. was in 
error more than 1000 years in the time of Alexander. The only 
certain point in regard to it is that Kandragupta (the Sandra- 
kottus of Megasthenes) ascended the throne of Palibothra, in 
the kingdom of Magadha, between 320 and 312, probably 315 
B. C. 

Kandragupta overthrew the house of the Nanda, a royal house, 
indeed, respecting wh ich the Brahminical traditions are very con- 
fused and contradictory. In a chronological point of view the 
notices of the earlier dynasties of the kingdom of Magadha are. 
unchronological. The following is a shadowing forth of this 



92 PRIMEVAL HISTORY. 

Fourth Period, in regard to the supposed dynasties and their 
periods, as according to Lassen (i. 501, Purana list): — 

I. Barhadratha 20 or 21 kings 1000 years. 

II. Pradyota 5 " 138 " 

III. Saisunaga 10 " 3(30 " 

IV. Nanda 9 " 100 " 



1598 " 
Supposing the accession of Kandragupta to be... 315 " B. C. 



Then the beginning of the Kali or Fourth Period 

is 1913 years B. C. 



Concerning the Age op Buddha. 

The chronology of Buddha is recognized as the first resting place 
in the Indian history after we go back of Alexander. Lassen has 
proved that the only tradition worthy of notice in the chronology 
of Buddha is that of the Cingalese. (Lassen ii, 5 1 —6 1 ) . Accord- 
ing to it in the year 543 B. C- Buddha escaped from the limitations 
of earthly existence, having then arrived at self-annihilation (Nir- 
vana). 

The Buddhistic list of kings is that of the house of Magadha, 
which was then seated to the south of Pataliputra, in Ragagriha, so 
called after an ancient city of that name in the Upper Punjanb. 
The house of Samudradatta from Mithila (Videha) consisting of 25 
kings, of whom the last was called Dipankara, reigned there in the 
first instance. To this succeeded the house of Bhattiya, called also 
Mahapadma, "abounding in stones," which was .the Brahminical 
epithet of the house of the Nanda kings, the sons of Mahanandi and 
a Sudra. But as Bhattiya lost his independence the dynasty com- 
mences with his son Bimbasira, who reigned 52 years and was 
succeeded by his son Agatasatru, who reigned 32 years. The 
seventh king after Bimbasira was Sisunaga, who reigned 18 and 
was succeeded by Kalasoka, for 28 years, whose sou Bhadrasena, 
with 22 years for himself and his nine brothers, was the im- 
mediate predecessor of Nanda. 



HINDOO ORIGINES. 93 

According to the Buddhist tradition, as intimated, Bhattiya be- 
came tributary to the king of Anga, but his enterprising son, after- 
wards King Bimbasira, expelled the tax collectors of the king of 
Anga, by whom the country was oppressed, defeated the king him- 
self in battle, and made Kampa, the capital of Anga, his royal 
residence till his father's death. The latter had appointed him 
king in his fifteenth year, which is an explanation of the long reign 
of 52 years. 

Now, Bimbasira was only five years younger than Buddha and 
in childhood a friend of his. When he was invested with the sov- 
ereignty by his father Buddha, was 20 years old. The latter was the 
son of Suddhodaua of the race of the Sakhja, kings of Devadaha, 
and styles himself the Sramana Gautama, the colonist of the race 
of the holy patriarchs of the kings of the eastern country, Gotama, 
a name which occurs in the Veda as belonging to a celebrated fam- 
ily of minstrels. 

Now, supposing Buddha to have died in 543 B. C, the traditions 
afford the following data for fixing the chronology: — 

B.C. 

Buddha born 5 years before the birth of Bimbisara 598 

Dedicates himself to reflection in his 29th year ; Bimbisara's 

24th year and the 10th year of his reign 569 

Appears as teacher at 35, being the 16th year of Bimbisara's 

reign 563 

Dies in the 21st year of his teachership, aged 56 543 

If, therefore, Buddha died in 543 B. C, the first year of Bimbi- 
sara's reign was 578 B. C. and the list is as follows : — 

I. The House of Bhattiya : 

B. C. 

1. Bimbisara reigns 52 years 578 — 527 

2. Agatasatru " 32 " 527 — 495 

3. Udayabhadra (Udaya) reigns 16 years 495 — 479 

4. Auurudhaka (Munda) reigns 8 years 479 — 471 

5. Nagadasaka reigns 24 years 471 — 447 

End of this dynasty. 



94 AGE OF BUDDHA. 

II. The House of Sisunaga : ■ — 

1. Sisunaga reigned 18 years 447 — 429 

2. Kalasoka reigned 28 years 429—401 

3. Bhadrasena and 9 brothers, 22 years 401 — 379 

The last of the brothers, Pingaoiakha, was 
dethroned by Nanda. 

III. The House of Nanda and his sons : — 

1. Nanda becomes king and reigns 66 years 379 — 313 

2. Nanda's younger brother dethroned by Kan- 

dragupta 313—312 

The dates and figures may not be all correct here, but they are 
approximate ; and the matter hath on the whole as clear a face, as 
with the data we possess we can undertake to give it. Mahananda, 
(the Great Nanda) ruled over " the whole earth." The Brahmin- 
ical lists, which are often found untrustworthy, give him a reign of 
43 years and the balance of twelve years of that dynasty to his son 
Sumalya. Lassen makes the period of the dynasty 88 years ; but I 
conclude there is reasonable ground for the number I have given, 
66, as being nearly correct. 

To the kingdom of Kandragupta (the kingdom of the Prasians, 
that is, the Easterns), also belonged the peninsula of Gugerat, 
which extended on the north as far as the Indus and to the south as 
far as the mouths of the Ganges and the limits of Kali tiara. His 
grandson and second successor may be said to have conquered the 
whole of Aryavara. His forces are said to have consisted of 600,000 
infantry, 30,000 cavalry and 900 elephants. He died in the 24th 
year of his reign, supposed 289 B. C. To him succeeded Vindu- 
sara, who reigned 28 years, consequently to B. C. 261. His suc- 
cessor, Asoka,is that king who adopted the doctrines of Buddhism. 
His inscriptions, in which the Buddhist doctrines are inculcated, 
and the 84,000 Buddhist sanctuaries (Kaitya), that is, partly tem- 
ples and partly tumuli (Stupa, Topes), which he is reputed to have 
erected are, in the present day, admired among the monuments of 
Buddhism. His reign of 37 years was the meridian of the empire 
of the Maurya; immediately after which its downfall took place, 
225 B. C. 

From what we have already had, the conclusion of historical criti- 



HINDOO ORIGINES. 95 

cism will not be a matter of wonder, namely, that the four cosmic 
eras of Manu are but the mythical sacerdotal offsets to the obscurity 
of the history or the traditions of the four historical ages, or states, 
with their respective democracies or interregna at the end of the 
first three. If the first age contains only general mythical repre- 
sentations of the divine progenitors, with some minute details to- 
wards the close, this does not justly detract from the reality of the 
period itself. The indications enable us to conclude that the sec- 
ond period commenced previously to the old settlement in the 
country of the Five Rivers, on the Sarasvati, the holy land of the 
Brahmins. There must, therefore, have been a long antecedent 
period, commencing with the incoming of the Arians, and which 
implies there then residence within the country. The end of that 
first period cannot, I think, be reasonably put at a later date than 
3000 B. C. We have then, according to Megasthenes, an interval 
of 200 years of democracy ; then a second dynastic period connected 
at its end with a democracy of 300 years; then a third dynastic 
period, connected with a democracy of 120 years; after which com- 
mences the fourth period or Kaliyuga. 

As the statement of the lengths of the monarchial periods can, in 
the circumstances, be only approximative, it may not be necessary 
to remark that to limit the time of the monarchies to about the 
-'ouble of the intervening times of democracy is not necessarily the 
most probable computation; for it is implied in the exceptions that 
the periods of monarchy were much longer than they. 

Taking into consideration the 200 years of democracy after the 
end of the first period, it is reasonable to suppose that the second 
monarchical period commenced about the year 3000 B. C, and the 
calculations of the time of the beginning of the fourth period by Las- 
sen justifies us in ascribing to the two middle periods an average of 
800 years duration. 

In these conditions the approximate determination of the epochs 
will be about as follows: — 

B. C— Years 
Beginning of Fourth Era, about 980 — 880 

Duration of Third Democracy 120— 120 



End of the Third Era, about 1100—1000 

Duration of Third Era, about 800 — 800 

Beginning, therefore, of Third Era 1900—1800 



!M5 AGE8. 

Duration of Second Democracy 300 — 300 

End, therefore, of Second Era 2200 — 2100 

Duration of Second Period 800 — 800 

Beginning, therefore, of Second Era 3000 — 2900 

Duration of First Democracy 200 — 200 

End, therefore, of First Period 3200 — 3100 

or 
3100 — 3000 

As regards the duration of the First period from the immigration 
of the Arians into the Indus country to their becoming possessed 
of the land of the Sarasvati we have no standard to judge by, if it 
arise not to us from a consideration and comparison of language. 
All that it is expedient to say is that peculiar habits of life were 
contracted in the land of the Five Rivers (Punjab), and that out of 
the religion there instituted, allusions to which are found in the 
oldest Vedic hymns, the Brahminical system, with a new mythology, 
and the introduction of castes gradually grew up on the other side 
of the Sutledj. The first epoch of the Arian kingdom in India only 
comprised the country of the seven rivers (the country of the five 
rivers or Punjab) ; and to that locality all the narratives of the 6rst 
period refer. 

When we speak of the Sanskrit Indians and of the Vedic Indians 
we mean Arian people all the same ; but the former are distinguished 
by their peculiar religion, their manner of life, and the peculiar turn 
of genius. The Sanskrit Indians have, of all the Arian races, the 
least inclination for historical pursuits. With them everything cos- 
mical resolves itself into the ideal and symbolical and then assumes 
a fantastic shape. Between these and the Vedic Indians there is a 
marked contrast, which shows itself plainly in their ancient poems. 
Indeed, it is said the Vedic Indians are merely Iranian Arians, who 
crossed the Indus, as regards their language, their customs and their 
religious observances. The chasm which divides the Vedic litera- 
ture from the Sanskrit is a wide one. The former, at least in the 
shape in which it has reached us, belongs as far back as the second 
era, doubtless to the first and preceding. Even in the time of 
Buddha, in the fourth era, Sanskrit was a dead language, in the 
sense of being a learned one, as we say in reference to Latin. He 



HINDOO ORIGINES. 97 

lived in the country of the Brahmins, yet he did not teach in their 
language, but in Pali. Internal convulsions in the way of dynastic 
and political changes in a country produce remarkable effects in 
regard to language. A change of dynasty may have the effect of 
giving a new language to a country, or at least such a variation of 
the old as is almost equivalent to a new. The Anglo Saxon is a 
different language from that of the ancient Britons, the French 
from the old Gallic, and the Italian, a Gothic language, from the 
Latin, all of which were induced by dynastic changes. A language 
does not die out except in consequence of such remarkable events. 
It is said the Hebrew became a sacred language only after the 
Babylonian captivity ; this was after the old thought of Phoenicia 
had returned from Babylon clothed with a new dress. The word 
Sanskrit signifies the complete, i.e., learned language in contra- 
distinction to the popular idiom. Between the beginning of the 
Kaliyuga and the time of Buddha no event that we can discover of 
such a nature as to change the language took place. But between 
the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth era there was 
an interval of democracy, so called, of 120 years, preceded, and, 
doubtless, followed by protracted and destructive wars. Whenever 
it was the Sanskrit reached its zenith, then the Vedic, the language 
of the Seers, was neglected. This was the demotic or popular lan- 
guage as compared with the Sanskrit, now become the language of 
the learned. 

The Zendic language is that of the old Bactrians of the home 
country, that is, East-Iranian. To the Vedic as well as the Sanskrit 
languages it presents a contrast. On the other hand, we find that 
of the first cuneiform character to be Median or West Iranian of a 
later epoch. 

The organic law which is developed in those changes of language 
here spoken of may be called the limitedness of a language in a con- 
quered nation as compared with its natural flow in the home coun- 
try. As the Indian literature of the Vedic language (the popular 
language of the first era) appears about the end of the second period, 
so the literature of the Sanskrit language, the popular idiom of the 
third period begins to appear in the fourth. 



98 IRAN. 



Concerning the Location of Ancient Iran Whence the Arians 
Emigrated to India. 

The text of the opening Fargard or section of that ancient Arian 
record, the Vendidad, may give some idea as to the geographical 
position of that country vaguely called Iran, from its giving a de- 
scription of the climate. 

" There Angro Manyus (Ahriman), the deadly, created a mighty 
serpent and snow : the work of Deva ; ten months of winter are 
there ; two months of summer." 

The ancestors of the Arians, according to this, inhabited what 
may be called a very cold country. The truth appears, on the 
whole, to be that parts of the country which the race inhabited were 
of a cold and other parts of a temperate climate. The following pas- 
sage found in the same record, which appears inconsistent with the 
above, may refer to that part of ancient Iran which has been called 
" the laud of pleasantness." It is as follows: — 

" The warm weather lasts seven months and winter five," etc. 

It is said this last passage was added by a later editor, " traces 
of whose interpolation and tampering are discernible throughout." 
What is regarded as a proof of this position is that the passage is 
omitted in the Huzuresh or Pehlevi translation ; and Lassen, in his 
Indian Archaeology, gives as his opinion that it is an interpolation. 
If it be properly regarded as an interpolation, it may, as I have in- 
timated above, be said that the interpolator was quite intelligent in 
his insertion. 

It is understood that the Arians left their primitive abodes in 
consequence of a convulsion of nature by which a remarkable change 
of the climate was produced. Some have thought it referred to dis- 
ruptions of the earth by internal and perhaps external forces through 
which the Caspian and Aral aud other inland seas may have been 
produced or enlarged, and by the existence of which eventually the 
climate became sensibly colder. The Caspian Sea borders upon 
old Iran, and the Aral is in the trans-Caspian district, in the same lat- 
itude however, though distant. 

In the mention of Ahriman having created " a mighty serpent and 
snow," the latter would pertain to the idea we have just now been 
considering. Namely, the change from a temperate to a cold climate 



HINDOO OKIGINES. 99 

the former, " a mighty serpent," would, doubtless, refer to human 
enemies, some nomadic nations, perhaps, of those northern regions, 
who by their cavalry incursions may have rendered the Arian posi- 
tions even more uncomfortable than the snow had done. But some 
suppose the great serpent may refer to volcanic eruptions, which 
they think " could play only a subordinate part " in the great con- 
vulsion. 

The primeval home of the Arians, whence they migrated on their 
way towards Iudia is placed by some of the best investigators upon 
the slopes of the Belur Tagh, in the Highland of Pamir between the 
37th and 40th degree of north latitude and the 86th and the 90th 
degree of longitude. On this western slope of the Belur-Tagh and 
the Mustagh, the Tian-Shang, or Celestial Mountain of the Chinese 
the Haro-Berezaiti (Albordsh) is also found, which is invoked in 
the Zenda-Vesta as the principal mountain and the primeval source 
of the waters. Lassen has remarked that at the present day the 
old inhabitants of that district and generally those of Khasgar, 
Yarkand, Khoten, Turfan and the adjacent highlands are Tadshiks, 
who speak Persian and who are all agriculturists. The Arians either 
found the Turcomans already there or the latter came later. 

After our Arians had started on their migrations the first settle- 
ment they made was at Sogd, and the third at Bakhdi (Bactria). 
They did not follow the course of the Oxus, for if so they would 
have come in the first instance to Bactria and not to Sogd. Their 
course, therefore, was more northerly. The climate of Sogdiana is 
said to be exactly what the record describes the home of the Arians 
to have been after the change produced by the above convulsion 
took place ; it has only two months of warm weather. 

Between their primitive abode and their settlement in India the 
Arians made fourteen settlements of which, as said, Sogdiana was 
the first, and Punjab the 14th. 

Their second settlement was Mouru, i.e., Margiana ; the third 
Bakhdi, i.e., Bactria. The fourth was Nisaya, i.e., Northern Par- 
thia. The fifth is Haroya, i.e., Aria. The sixth Vekereta, i.e., 
Segestan. The seventh is Urva, i.e., Cabul. The eighth is 
Khneuta, i.e., Candahar. The ninth Haraqaiti, i.e, Arachosia. 
The tenth Helmat, i.e., the district of Hilmend. The eleventh 
Ragha, i.e., Northern Media. The twelfth Kakhra, i.e., Khoras- 
san. The thirteenth Varena, i.e., Ghilan. The fourteenth Haptu- 
Hindu, i.e., Punjab. The land of the seven Hindus is the country 



100 IRAN. 

between the Indus and the Sutledj. In the Vedas the country of 
the Five Rivers is also called the land of the Seven Sindhus, i.e. 
the seven rivers.* The Indus and the Sutledj are each formed by 
the junction of two arms, which in their earlier course were inde- 
pendent rivers. 

It was not, therefore, till the fourteenth settlement after the 
emigration from the primitive country that the Arians (Agricul- 
turists or Nobles) passed the Hindu-Rush and the Indus. Who 
can estimate the duration of the abode of the ancestors in each of the 
countries mentioned, or, in other words, the number of generations 
for each of the localities respectively, reckoning in a direct line 
from the time they left the primitive country till they passed the 
Sutledj? The previous resting places form an unbroken chain of 
the primitive abodes of the Arians. The last link in those earlier 
settlements is in Afghanistan on the western slope of the Hindu- 
Kush. An observation of the countries possessed in the progress 
shows that the Ariau ancestors occupied in succession almost all the 
fertile spots in East Central Asia, excepting southern Media and 
Farsistan or ancient Persia. But, as history shows the Arian race 
spread through the whole of Media, although dominant only in 
Persia, it is a reasonable conclusion that Ghilan and Masandaran, 
to the southwestward of the Afghan country (which indeed secured 
their previous possessions with the passes of the Caspian) may 
have formed the nucleus of those ancient possessions which after- 
wards became, in many ways, so celebrated. 

As already intimated, history, as well as personal observation in 
the present age, gives unequivocal proof of the Iranian having been 
the popular language in all those districts so that each country of 
the Arians was an Iran (Airya). The names in the ancient record 
before us, when compared with the Sanskrit, are found to be all 
variations of the very ancient Iranian formations. Moreover, in 
the inscriptions of the Achemidae, pertaining to Persia, we recog- 
nize several of these names, which have become historical in recent 
times. 



* There are seven rivers pertaining to this part of the country of which the Greeks had th* 
names. They are as follows: — 



f I. Indu 
I II. Hyd 



1. Kaphen (Kubha) 

2. Indus Upper, I. Indus. 

3. Hydaspes (Bidaspes) | II. Hydaspes. 

4. Akesines (Asikni) ;• III. Akesines. 
6. Hyarotis (Hydruotis, Iravati.Parusni), | IV. Hydraotes. 

6. Hyphasis (Vipasa). 

7. Saranges (Upper Satadru = Sutledj) J V. Hyphasis 



HINDOO ORIGINES. 101 

By our critics great confidence is placed in the historical char- 
acter of the Vendidad, which they claim to be what it purports to 
be, at least in part, a history of the early immigrations of the 
Arians. Its first Fargard or section is divided into two parts ; the 
one comprising the immigration from the Eastern and North-eastern 
primeval country to Bactria in consequence of some natural catas- 
trophe and climatic change ; the other the subsequent extension of 
theArian dominion throughout central Asia which terminated in 
the occupation of the Punjab. The document has, of course, suf- 
fered more or less by the interpolation of geographical remarks, 
the absurdity of some of which shows them not to belong to the text. 

The description as to climate of the primeval land would indicate 
the high lands of central Asia, that of the Altai and of the Chinese 
Himalaya. This ancient record is corroborated by the most ancient 
traditions of India ; and it is thought the Biblical traditions may 
represent the Western Aborigines, the Hamites and Shemites, 
whose primeval abodes are located at the sources of the Euphrates 
and northwards about those of the Oxus and Jaxartes ; while the 
Turanian or so-called Aryan tradition may represent the Eastern 
tribes in the primeval land. Some have thought the cause of the 
climatic change to cold in the northern latitudes might be attribut- 
able in the Bible account to the action of water, especially in such 
peculiar operations of its forces as disrupted the earth's surface and 
formed inland seas, such as the Caspian, Aral, etc., which so would 
effect the temperature of the climate. In the Turanian or Arian 
tradition the cause assigned for the climate's 'change to cold is as- 
signed to the sudden freezing up of the rivers, which, considering 
the picture presented by heaps of ice piled up or floating in the 
waters, suggests to some good investigators the upheavals and dis- 
locations of the superficial strata from the operation of internal 
forces, principally water in connection with fire. Ten months of 
winter is the climate of Western Thibet, Pamer and Belur, at the 
present day, which corresponds with that of the Altai country and 
the district east of the Kuenlung, the Paradise of the Chinese. In 
both the general traditions, however, effects are described rather 
than causes; except we consider that in the Bible the cause given 
for the occurrence of the Flood is the will of God that it should be 
so in consequence of the sins of mankind ; while in the Vendidad 
Ormuzd or Ahriman is the cause (creator) of the conditions good or 
bad, just as they happen to be or to become. 



102 ZOROASTER. 



As to the Age and Doctrine of Zoroaster. 

In the Armenian Edition of Eusebius we find the name o 
Zoroaster in his Chaldaen list of kings of Berosus. It is the 
name of the Median king who conquered Babylon in the year 
2234 B. C. It is supposed this king obtained this title from 
his being a follower of Zarathustra (Zoroaster) the celebrated 
prophet, that is, that he was a professor of his doctrines. This 
king founded in Babylon a new dynasty, called Median ; but he 
was preceded in Media by 84 other kings. It is clear, however, 
from his date that he was not the prophet Zoroaster, and besides, 
Media, the country from which he came, was not the historical 
birthplace of the language (Zend) or the religion of the prophet 
Zoroaster. 

Both Aristotle and Eudoxus, according to Pliny (N. H. xxx, 2), 
place Zarathustra 6000 years before the death of Plato ; Hermippus, 
the Alexandrian, who himself translated the works of Zoroaster and 
wrote upon astrological topics, put him 5000 years before the Trojan 
war, which would make it about the same as the date given by the 
others. The two dates above given being found to agree and the 
death of Plato being put at 348 B. C, we find the date of Zoro- 
aster and of the introduction of his religion at 6350 B. C. This 
date, considering the authority on which we have it, is thought to 
be correct. 

The names of the 84 kings who ruled Media before Zoroaster, 
the conqueror of Babylon, are given by Polyhistor ; but some have 
doubted, as to whether this Zoroaster was himself a Median, sup- 
posing he may have conquered Media from Bactria as he afterwards 
did Babylon from Media. The man himself, however, doubtless 
understood himself as the hereditary king of the Medes; and al- 
lowing for the average reign of his 84 predecessors 20 years, which 
is the highest average I am disposed to allow for so many in suc- 
cession, we have the approximate date for the first of that series 
at 3914 B. C. 

According to Haug* the old songs of the Zendavesta describes 
the prophet as follows: "He it is who offers words in songs, who 



* Deutsch-Morgenlaml. Zeit. ix, p. 685. 



HINDOO ORIGINES. 103 

promotes purity by his praise: he upon whom Ah~ra Mazda (Or- 
muzd) conferred the good gift of eloquence; he was the first in 
the world who made the tongue subservient to the understanding; 
he is the only one who understood the doctrines of the Supreme 
God and was in a condition to transmit them." He was a priest 
of the Fire Worshipers, who found the doctrine of the good and 
evil principle already in vogue, although it is found that the name 
Ahriman does not yet occur in the oldest records. In his doctrine 
what is understood principally by evil is evil thought (akoinano) 
and this is, contrasted with good thought, which is identical with 
the good principle. It cau hardly be said that a personification of 
the good principle is to be found in his writings. He rather fa- 
vored the faith in good spirits, Ahuras, the Living, which are called 
the "Dispensers of Wisdom," (Mazdas); this he found already 
in existence ; but he oppossd the faith in the gods or powers of 
nature as being the highest beings. At the head of all he placed 
the One Holy God, Ah ura Mazda (Ormuzd), " the highest Spirit." 
He is the creator and sustainer of all existence, the Lord of all the 
powers of nature. By spiritual life Zoroaster understands a bet- 
ter st°te on this earth ; over all earthly aud spiritual life the Lord 
rule3 The great axiom of Zoroaster was that " the highest Trin- 
ity (drigu) is Thought, Word, Deed." These three in his view are 
pure in the pure, evil in the evil ; from the thought proceeds the 
word, from the word the deed. His followers have been distin- 
guished as worshipers of Agni or fire. 



104 AIRYANS. 



Concerning the Hindu Reminiscences About the Primeval 
Country and the Flood. 

Neither among the Bactrians nor the Hindus have the reminis- 
cences of the catastrophe in the primeval conntry nor the account of 
the flood, in some sort, been altogether lost. 

Of the Hindus the North with the sacred mountain of Meru is the 
primeval land. 

Upameru, that is Pamer, that is Meru is the primeval country 
itself. You can see the Pamer High Land marked on your map on 
the western slope of the mountain chain, running north from India 
and bounding China on the west. There is no doubt but that the 
primeval land, so-called, was understood as extending to the east 
of that mountain chain, both into Thibet and China, as well as 
towards the west and north. All allow that the Ottorokorrha of 
Ptolemy are the Uttara-Kuru or Northern Kuru of the Hindu tra- 
ditions. In his geography the latter described them as inhabiting 
a district in the extreme north of central Asia of which he gives 
the latitude and longitude. This information he must have de- 
rived from the Hindus while Hecateus must, have derived the in- 
formation he gives concerning them from the Persians. The two, 
however, are found to agree in their account. The agreement, 
therefore, of the Indian and Iranian accounts concerning the loca- 
tion of the primeval land shows that the Indians did not get all the 
knowledge they possess concerning those northern countries after 
the time of Alexander the Great. 

The Vendidad, the code of the present Parsees, has undergone 
various processes of composition, of which three main steps are 
distinguishable: Avesta, Zend and Pazend. The Avesta is to be 
considered the original ground work of the code. It means direct 
higher knowledge, divine Revelation. Its origin is ascribed to the 
post-Zoroastrian age. Of the laws which it embodies there sprung 
up in the course of time several interpretations and comments, 
which as they emanated from recognized competent authority 
gradually acquired as much weight as the original and came to be 
incorporated with it. This is the Zend, which means the explana- 
tion, commentary of the Avesta. In these comments, however, 
there were found many things unintelligible to the after genera- 



HINDOO ORIGINES. 105 

tions, which gave rise to other further comments on these known 
as Pazend. All three of these steps exist and are recognizable in 
the present Zend-Avesta or more properly Avesta-Zend. 

As said above the original of the Vendidad, after having stated 
by way of preliminary that Ahura Mazda had changed the world 
from its former desert condition into a place fit for civilized habita- 
tion, goes on and briefly enumerates sixteen best countries or para- 
dises created by Ahura Mazda, each of which was distinguished 
from the others by some noteworthy property. In contrast to 
these certain counter creations of AngraMainy us (the black spirit), 
are then recorded; but without any further description of them. 

But, if now we look more closely into these scanty preliminary 
notices as to locality we shall find that the geography of the Zend- 
Avesta was by no means limited to the countries mentioned in this 
chapter. The whole globe was on several occasions divided by 
those Airyans into seven Karshvares, or cultivable districts, the 
names of which frequently recur in the Jeshts, where they are 
called Areza, Sava, Fradadhafshu, Vidadhafsku, Vouru-baresti, 
Vouru-garesti and Qauiaratha. This account is deemed very 
ancient, inasmuch as the seven-portioned earth is mentioned in the 
Gathas, a collection of songs ascribed to Zarathustra. 

The passages which contain the direct evidence of the geo- 
graphical knowledge of the compilers of the Zend-Avesta are where 
mention is made of the countries of the Airya (Iranians), the 
Tuirya (Turanians), the Sairima (Sarmatians), the Saini (the 
Sauni of the classics, to the west of the Caspian, or, as some 
think, the Sakini), the Dahi (the Daher or Daer of the classics, in 
Hyrcania). In the legend of Shahnameh we find the three sons of 
Feredun, Selm, Tur and Ireg, mentioned as the three patriarchs, 
among whom the whole earth is divided. Most of the particular 
nations mentioned in the Zend-Avesta belonged to Iran, or Airya in 
its widest acceptation. 

In regard to the Hindu tradition about the flood, Weber, in his 
'•Indian Studies," has argued that the variations in the account of 
it in the Brahmanas of the Yagur-Veda are very ancient in oppo- 
sition to Burnouf and Lassen, who supposed it to have come into 
the Indian literature through the Semitic. 

As this account appears in the Vedic contemplations (Brahma- 
nas) which form the second part of the White Yagur-Veila, edited 
by Burnouf, it seems rather in a fabulous garb; but it nevertheless 



106 FLOOD. 

may have a meaning to convey. Its general picture is about as 
follows : — 

Mnnu, the patriarch of the human race, found, one morning, a 
little fish in some water in which he was going to wash. He took it 
up in his hand and tlie fish said to him : " Take care of me and I 
will save you." " Save me from what?" said Manu. "A flood," 
replied the fish, " will sweep away every living thing; I will save 
you from it." "How shall I take care of you?" said Manu. 
" Keep me carefully in a jar till I e;row big, then put me into a tank, 
which you will make for the purpose ; and at length throw me into 
the sea." The fish having grown to a good size said one day to 
Manu: " In such a year (naming it) the Flood will come; build a 
ship and turn to me in spirit ; when the waters rise get into the 
ship and I will save you." Exactly as he was bidden Manu did; 
and when he was in the ship the fish came swimming towards him, 
whereupon he fastened a rope to it and the fish set off across the 
northern mountain. " You had better lash your ship to a tree," 
said the fish, in order that you may not be carried away, although 
you are on the mountain and when the water subsides you can let 
yourself down gradually." This is the reason why the northern 
mountain is called " the slope of Manu." The Flood destroyed all 
flesh. Manu alone survived. He offered up sacrifice for an invo- 
cation of the All (Good) and a prayer for his blessing, where- 
upon a woman, bringing him the blessing out of the Sacrificial Oil, 
rose up and addressed him thus: " He who begat me, his am I ; I 
am the blessing thou hast desired." She became by Manu the 
mother of his race, who still survive ; and whatever blessing he de- 
sired with her that he obtained. Ida or Ila is the name of woman, 
the original meaning of which is " thanksgiving," thoug after- 
wards signified "earth" and is the ordinary name for Manu's 
daughter. 

The Puraua tells this same story with some variations, and ex- 
pressly mentions the fish who saved Manu, in the Brahminic tradi- 
tion as Vishnu. In one of the Epodes Manu escapes from the 
Flood on to the Himavat (Imaus, Himalaya) on the top of which 
he is saved, and where the family of human beings he had brought 
with him in the ship took root. The tradition is not mentioned in 
the Vedas, in which, however, Vishnu is used for the name of the 
Sun. It is not, therefore, wonderful to find that the first migrat- 
ing movement of mankind came from the mountains of the north 



HINDOO ORIGINES. 107 

In the Hindu version of Cosmogony is found much that is com- 
mon Arian property. Here we find the Cosmic egg. According to 
Manu Brahma created out of himself the waters which contained a 
germ or seed. From this came an e^g, from which he, " as the 
first ancestor of all the worlds," was himself born. There are per- 
ceived in the Vedas also allusions to this, but the doctrine of the 
Cosmic egg is more ancient than the Brahmins and the minstrels of 
the Indus country. 



6 




ORIGIN 



ANCIENT CIVILIZATION 



NILE'S VALLEY. 



BY 

ROBEET SHAW, M. A., 

AUTHOR OF 

"CREATOR AND COSMOS;" OF " COSMOTHEOLOGIES AMD INDICATIONS OF 
JUDGMENT;" OF A "CRITIQUE OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT .EGYPT; " 
OF A " CRITIQUE OF THE HISTORY OF THE SCOTS OR GAELS;" OF THE 
"ORIGIN OF THE MOSAIC DISPENSATION," ETC.; OF AN "INQUIRY 
INTO THE SUBJECT OF THE ORIGIN" OF CHRISTIANITY ; " OF THE 
"PROPHECIES OF REVELATION DEVELOPED IN THE HIS- 
TORY OF CHRISTENDOM;" OF A "CHAPTER ON THE 
CYCLES OF THE ANCIENTS ;" OF THE "CHALDEAN 
AND HEBREW AND THE CHINESE AND HIN- 
DOO OrtlGINES;" OF THE " PHOEN- 
ICIAN COSMOGONIES," ETO. 



RE VISED. 



ST. LOUIS: 
BECKTOLD & COMPANY. 

1889. 



INTRODUCTION". 



(origin of civilization of nile's valley.) 

The extraordinary interest ever attaching to the subject herein 
treated, together with what I may be allowed to understand in my- 
self as a praiseworthy desire to perpetuate the true idea in regard 
to the ancient civilization of the Nile's Valley will, I trust, be 
gracefully accepted as my apology for the publication of the fol- 
lowing treatise. 

This treatise will serve, first, for the perpetuation of the memory 
of a race of men, who, although found to have been many-sided in 
their abilities and energies, yet, being steady and orderly in their 
general habits, and having bent their genius and energies largely in 
one direction during a long course of ages, have surpassed in their 
productions of statuary and architecture all the other races which 
we know to have existed on the earth. 

The idea of their marvelous works our treatise will serve to per- 
petuate, while at the same time it will serve to perpetuate the idea 
which I in common with many of my contemporaries entertain, 
and which many of our predecessors have entertained as to their 
ethnical origin and race peculiarities — an idea whereof I suppose 
I give good proof — as well as my idea of the origin and varied 
nature of their institutions, political and civil. 

With these few words as preliminary I ask the reader to attend 
to the treatise itself, which, after he shall have finished, he will 
find my "Critical Review of the History of Ancient iEgypt," 
added last in the 2nd volume of my works, to throw much light 
upon, and leave some of its points and connections more definitely 
understandable . 

ST. LOUIS: 1889. R S 



CONTENTS. 



(Origin of Civilization of Nile's Valley.) 

As to the Ancient Civilization of the Valley of the Nile 
and its Origin — Its Ancient Works of Art being De- 
scribed as they Appeared at and before the Beginning of 
this 19th Century — And as to the General Cosmopolity 
of Ancient Egypt. 

Pages. 

Ancient state of Egypt „ 7-12 

Ancient Nubia, Ethiopia, Meroe — The Course of the 

Nile's Valley 12-64 

As to the Ancient History of Egypt, etc 64-70 

As to Monuments in the Nile's Valley 70-90 

Thebes : Monuments on its Western Side 90-104 

Thebes : Monuments on its Eastern Side 104-111 

Catacombs — Grottoes — Tombs or Sepulchres 111-118 

Tombs of Beni Hassan 118-122 

General subject of the Monuments and their Represen- 
tations 122-136 

General Ancient Egyptian Polity both Internal or 
Dotaestic and External as by War, Commerce, etc., 
with the Neighboring and Foreign Nations 136-182 





15 



10 



AS TO THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATION 



OP THE 



VALLEY OF THE NILE AND ITS ORIGIN. 



ITS ANCIENT WORKS OF ART BEING DESCRIBED AS THEY APPEARED 
AT AND BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THIS 19TH CENTURY. 



AND AS TO THE GENERAL COSMOPOLITY OF ANCIENT .EGYPT. 



Egypt, according to its own traditions, was originally inhabited 
by savage tribes, without agriculture or organized government, 
who lived upon such fruits as the earth spontaneously produced and 
upon fish with which the Nile was always well stocked, while their 
buildings consisted merely of huts made of reeds. Of a portion 
of its inhabitants, namely, the shepherd and fishing tribes, the mode 
of life in later times evidences the truthfulness of this account. 
But it appears evident from its history that as the ages passed on 
Egypt was governed by different dynasties, so called, and although 
the obscurity which overhangs this subject owing to its great an- 
tiquity does not permit us to trace as clearly as we would wish the 
lineage of those successive governing clans, still we may conclude 
it not only probable, but true that some of those dynasties were in 

(7) 



8 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

their origin foreign not only to Egypt but to the valley of the Nile ; 
and consequently that each of those governing races must in its 
turn have more or less impressed itself upon the then actually ex- 
isting Egyptian race. 

It is the opinion of some very able investigators upon this sub- 
ject that the history of the political growth of Egypt did not arise 
from those savage tribes with which the history of Egypt begins ; 
but from a race of different language and somewhat different color, 
who settling among those barbarians in the fertile part of the land, 
especially in the valley of the Nile, became the builders of cities, 
the promoters of agriculture, the originators of public works, the 
founders of colonies and states and the constructors of such mag- 
nificent temples and monuments as the world never elsewhere 
beheld ; that these joined or assimilated to themselves the aborig- 
inal peoples or brought them kindly into subjection to their civili- 
zation. Their dominion was thus established, not so much by force 
as by superior knowledge and a kind of civilization which arose 
from and was connected with their religion. This the Egyptians 
themselves express in their own way, when they ascribe the found- 
ation of their civilization to their gods, particularly to Osiris, Isis 
and Amun. 

But, if in the whole range of Egyptian antiquities there is to be 
found one proposition less open to contradiction than another it is 
that the Egyptian civilization, more especially political improve- 
ment, did not spread from the sea inland, but rather from south 
to north. Upper Egypt was, according to the history and tradi- 
tions of the nation, more early civilized than Middle Egypt — even 
the first Egyptian dynasty coming from This — and there was a 
time when the name of Thebes was generally synonymous with the 
civilized portion of Egypt. It is equally certain that Lower Egypt 
was not cultivated till after both those portions, partly for the rea- 
son that it was not habitable till later and partly from the direction 
of the progres of the civilization. 

Speaking of the real and standing civilization of the Egyptians 
at a very early period Mr. Geo. Rawlinson says: " Shu re was the 
leader of the 4th dynasty, and his name found by Mr. Perring on 
blocks built in the northern pyramid of Abouseer shows hi in to 
have been the founder of that monument. This may be called the 
Memphite or the pyramid period.* And not only does the con- 



* Dr. Lepsius mentions 67 pyramids, which necessarily represent a large number ot Kings. 
As it is likely that each pyramid represents a different king then it is unfortunate that the 67 
Egyptian pyramids cannot now be traced. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 9 

struction of the pyramids, but the scenes depicted in the sculptured 
tombs of this epoch show that the Egyptians had already the same 
habits and arts as in aftertimes ; and the hieroglyphics in the great 
pyramid written in the cursive character on the stones, before they 
were taken from the quarry, prove that writing had been long in 
use. The position too of each pyramid, corresponding, as it does, 
to the four cardinal points and the evident object they had in view 
of ascertaining by the long line of one of its faces the return of a 
certain period of the year, prove the advance made by the Egyp- 
tians in mathematical science ; and all these evidences being ob- 
tained from the oldest monuments that exist, introduce them to us 
as a people already possessing the same settled habits as in later 
times. We see no primitive mode of life ; no barbarous customs; 
not even the habit, so slowly abandoned by all people, of wearing 
arms, when not in military service ; nor any archaic art. And if 
some clumsy figures have been found in the neighborhood of Mem- 
phis, probably of the 3rd dynasty, their imperfections are rather 
attributable to the inferior skill of the workmen, than to the ha- 
bitual strife of the period ; and rude figures were sometimes made 
long after the fourth dynasty." 

" Whatever may have been the style of construction in the pyra- 
mids of Venephes certain it is that in the 4th dynasty, about two 
centuries after Menes, the blocks in the pyramids of Geezeh, many 
of which were brought from the cataracts of Syene, were put to- 
gether with a precision unsurpassed by any masonry of ancient or 
modern times; and all these facts lead to the conclusion that the 
Egyptians had already made great progress in the arts of civiliza- 
tion before the age of Menes, and perhaps before they emigrated 
into the valley of the Nile. In the tombs of the pyramid period 
are represented the same fowling and fishing scenes as occur later; 
the rearing of cattle and wild animals of the desert; the scribes 
using the same kind of reed for writing on the papyrus an inven- 
tory of the estate which was to be represented to the owner ; the 
same boats, though rigged with a double mast instead of the single 
one of later times; the same mode of preparing for the entertain- 
ment of guests ; the same introduction of music and dancing ; the 
same trades, as glass-blowers, cabinet makers, and others; as well 
as similar agricultural scenes, implements and granaries. We see 
also the same costume of the priests ; and the prophet or Sam, with 
his leopai - d's skin dress; and the painted sculptures are both in 
relief and intaglio," etc., etc. 



10 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

The most ancient Egyptian States, according to the histories of 
Manetho and others, were altogether in the valley of the Nile, on 
both sides of the river. The nature and constitution of the Nile's 
valley shows this to be so, because in Lower Egypt or the Delta, 
where the plain on both sides of the river considerablj' expands, the 
soil itself was not formed until at a considerably late period. The 
kingdoms of Upper and Middle Egypt, as mentioned by Manetho, 
are, beginning from the southern frontier, the States of Elephantis, 
of Thebes or Diospolis, of This, afterwards called Abydos, of 
Heracleoplis and of Memphis, this last named being not far from 
the place where the Nile divides. States in Lower Egypt, or the 
Delta, are not mentioned till towards the end of his dynasties, 
namely, the States of Tanis Bubastis, Mendes, Sebenn} r tus and 
Sais. 

The dynasties of Manetho, it is true, contain but little more 
than mere catalogues of successive kings, but they are, notwith- 
standing, of the greatest importance in regard to Egyptian antiqu- 
ity, not only because they lead us to correct ideas concerning that, 
but more especially because they make known to us the names of 
the cities in which those kings reigned and so point out the local- 
ities of the most ancient Egyptian civilization. In a nation, whose 
whole being, language, government and civilization were so much 
formed according to the local circumstances these give the first 
ideas, the foundations upon which all further inquiries must be 
built. 

In the period of her highest civilization the Egyptian polity ex- 
hibits the form of a complete hierarchy, in which every germ, 
which in a less fortunate soil must have perished, by favoring cir- 
cumstances in various ways shot forth. A consideration of this 
subject in its various features leads to the conclusion that the civil- 
ization of the Nile's Valley, including Egypt, Nubia, Meroe, etc., 
was largely due to the instrumentality of the priest-caste. Thebes, 
as well as the States in general, of Upper Egypt, are called, in the 
annals of the priests colonies, from Meroe in Ethiopia (Diodorous 
Sic. 1, p. 175-6) ; and at Thebes the service of Jupiter Amun, 
whose temple was the common center of this State as well as of 
that of ancient Meroe, gives of itself a striking proof that such was 
the case. Elephantis most likely owed its origin to the navigation 
of the Nile. The situation of the place, lying just at the point 
where the river became and ceased to be navigable, made it what it 
became. Memphis, whose situation is so remarkable from the dams 



ANCIENT STATE OF EGYPT. 11 

and embankments, is called a colony of Thebes (Diodorous, 1, p. 
160). Other principal cities of Egypt, likewise, derived their 
descent directly or indirectly from Ethiopia, of which they consid- 
ered themselves as colonies and to which fact their religious insti- 
tutions appear to give testimony. (Id. p. 175.) 

These testimonies, then, and indications render the conclusion 
reasonable that the same race which ruled in Ethiopia and Meroe 
spread themselves by colonies, in the first instance, to Upper Egypt ; 
that these latter colonies, in consequence of their remarkable pros- 
perity, became in their turn the founder of others; and as in all 
this they followed the course of the river, there gradually became 
founded a succession of colonies in the valley of the Nile, which, 
according to the usual custom of the ancient world, were probably 
at first independent of each other, and there formed, as the Greek 
cities, just so many little States. 

This outspreading colonization must not of necessity be under- 
stood to have taken place step by step in exact geometrical 
order, so to speak, for that there may have been a mutual colonizing 
of Ethiopia by Egypt at times in the course of ages is not to be denied. 

That the whole of Egypt, as then existing, was governed by 
Menes, their first king, as according to their existing records, and 
not only one constituent part or state of it, is reasonably the un- 
derstanding which their ancient history as transcribed into the 
Greek language and handed down by their high priest Manetho in 
the time of the Ptolemies was intended to convey ; and that it was 
successive dynasties, from Menes downwards, which were in the 
mind of Manetho, and not contemporary ones in some ages, pre- 
ceding the 18th dynasty, as some critics, Eusebius, among others, 
have supposed, is as fairly to be understood in like manner of Man- 
etho, so far as his meaning may be required, and however the case 
may really have been.* 



* This I wrote in 1887, but daring the last year my researches hare satisfactorily 
and conclusively proved that the commencement of the empire of Menes, was 
with the ISth dynasty, so called; and that the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties, so 
called, when fully expressed, are the substantial prototypes of the dynasties expressed 
before them in the history, which had an existence only on paper. This discovery I 
see now obtains corroboration from the Statement then added from Rawhnson 
as follows: "With the exception of the pyramids of Memphis and the Labyrinth, some frag- 
ments and small objects, some stelae and obelisks of Osirtasen I. at Heliopolis and in the Fay- 
oum, nothing is met with of old times before the ISth dynasty. This may be reasonably as- 
cribed to the invasion of the shepherds, as the preservation of the early tombs may be explained 
by the feeling common to all time of respect for the dead." (Herod. App. Bk. ii, p. 338.) 

It is seen, therefore, that the monuments do not help us out much in regard to the history of 
the dynasties preceding the 18th ; but there has been some stress laid upon one short passage 
in Manetho, translated " Kings of Thebais and of the other provinces of Egypt," which, whether 
or not of his original penning, was thought by some to favor the idea of contemporary dynasties. 



12 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

But this general conclusion, considering the subject not only from 
its historical, but also from its physiological and ethnological stand- 
points, which gives us for the originators of this ancient civilization 
a race not so much Egyptian or Ethiopian, if you will (for going 
back far enough in my mental vision I look upon the primitive root 
of those two appellations as the same) ; but a race pertaining from 
a very high antiquity to the Nile's valley, and thus in so far differ- 
entiate not only from the Asiatic but also from the other African 
races. That the civilization of ancient Egypt, however, as to its 
origin, w;is as likelv to have descended as to have ascended the Nile's 
valley will appear more clear if we take into consideration not only 
the ethnological character of some Ethiopic nations as compared with 
others, but also the character and the degree of civilization estab- 
lished among them. 

Prof. Heeren (Researches, etc., p. 171), speaking in reference 
to what he had just said in a preceding chapter, says : " The Ethi- 
opians with which we have become acquainted in the foregoing 
chapter must altogether be ranked in the lowest order of civiliza- 
tion. There still, however, exists an evident difference as to im- 
provement amongst them. We have already seen all the various 
gradations from the complete savage, as described by Hanno, whose 
rank might have been disputed by the Ourang Outang to the hunt- 
ins: and fishing tribes ; and again from the latter to the nomad 

© O © 

herdsmen ; yet we do not anywhere discover a single nation, that 
united in a settled abode, formed itself into a great and well organ- 
ized State. Nevertheless, there certainly existed a better cultivated 
and, to a certain degree, a civilized Ethiopian people ; who dwelt in 
cities, who erected temples and other edifices, who, though without 
letters, had hieroglyphics; who had government and laws ; and tho 
fame of whose progress in knowledge and the social arts spread, in 
the earliest ages, over a considerable part of the earth ; that State 
was Meroe* " Here we get a picture of Ancient Ethiopia as some- 
what analogously tnough not strictly comparatively to Austria- 
Hungary or rather Russia of the present day, being made up of 
many different nations of various kinds and degrees of civilization, 
from what might be regarded as among the lowest to what might be 

© © o o 

regarded as among the highest at that time among men. 

© © ri o 

That this may be a tolerably fair representation of the case, no 
one, I think, will dispute; for it is certain that Meroe, has been 
now for two or three thousand years celebrated in various ways; 
but its peculiar and distant situation has always involved it in mys- 



ANCIENT ETHIOPIA AND NUBIA 13 

tery and obscurity. It is only within the last seventy years that 
the dark cloud, under which it had so long been hid, has been dis- 
persed by the energetic and persistent efforts of Burkhardt, Bruce, 
Caillaud, Hoskins, and others. As a result of these explorations, 
Meroe did not by any means appear alone, but a new world of an- 
tiquities, whose existence had not even been hinted at as imagined 
by any modern writer, were laid open to the view of the astonished 
world. Hitherto had the southern boundary of Egypt and the last 
cataract of the Nile been considered as the ancient verge of civili- 
zation and science. The more distant regions were, however, now 
explored. By crossing the Nubian Desert, Bruce and his prede- 
cessors first led the way; others followed, who penetrated up the 
Nile, keeping near its banks, whereon they discovered that succes- 
sion of monuments, which has created so much wonder among the 
lovers of antiquarian research ; wonderful alike by their number, 
their peculiarity, and their magnitude. 

Temple alter temple appeared, sometimes erected upon, at other 
times, however, in the rock, and still at others excavated in the 
earth ; scarcely had the explorers got out of sight of one, when 
another rose to their view. Colossal figures buried up to their 
shoulders in sand still towered above all these, and indicated the 
gigantic structures which lay concealed behind them. As the 
travelers continued their journey south, an immense number of 
pyramids appeared with temples and ruins of cities close by or in- 
termingled with them; and, at last, the distant Meroe itself, with 
the ancient temple of Jupiter Amun, still erect and majestic in its 
ruins. 

It may expedite matters if I here premise geographically that 
all the monuments to be noticed in this connection are found 
within the valley of the Nile, either close to the river, or at a mod- 
erate distance from it. The course of the Nile above Egypt, before 
its conflux with the Astaboras, lies through a valley enclosed on 
both sides by a chain of mountains or rather hills, which sometimes 
recede from, and sometimes advance towards the river, till they 
approach near its banks. These, while they offer no obstructions 
to the lesser windings within the valley, render impossible any 
great variation in the direction of the stream. From Burkhardt's 
observations, we infer that the soil of the valley to the southwards 
was at one time as fertile as it is in Egypt itself, for where it could 
remain in that State, it is still found so. 



14 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Thus, it becomes evident, that this valley may once nave been a 
highly cultivated region, with a dense population, dwelling in cities 
and flourishing in science, art and religion. But these mountain 
chains being succeeded on both sides of the river by sandy deserts, 
(the Nubian on the East, and on the west, that of Sahara, which 
extends across Africa), the sand has proved an opponent quite 
more formidable here than in Egypt. The lower mountain chain 
affording but slight protection, this deadly enemy of all civilization 
not only has penetrated into the valley, but has frequently in part 
or in whole buried the monuments. It cannot, therefore, seem at 
at all surprising that the same causes should have occasioned 
some alterations in the course of the river itself, many branches of 
which may perhaps have been forced into one, and small 
islands joined to the main land. It is, however, found as a matter 
of fact, that the valley of the Nile has been in times past in some 
places very different from what it is now. Traces are everywhere 
visible of old canals formed for extending its periodical overflow : 
and these changes alone would have been sufficient to have caused 
the inhabitants to sink and degenerate even if other untoward 
events had not conspired to that end. The river, deviating from 
its usual straight course, forms a curve of from 19° to 23° by 
running westward deeper into Libya, and soon winds again toward 
the East, and reassumes a northerly direction, which it maintains 
throughout Nubia and Egypt. The interior of the bows which it 
makes by these windings, is occupied largely by the Nubian Desert 
and by the kingdom of Dongola. 

For the first accounts as to the course of the Nile above Egypt, 
we are indebted to Herodotus. He collected them in Egypt, prob- 
ably at Thebes or Elephantin, beyond which place he did not travel. 
We are not, therefore, to consider him in this case as an eye-wit- 
ness, but as reporting what he had heard from others. Some dif- 
ferences, though slight, between his account and the present course 
of the stream appear to confirm what we have just said ; but on the 
whole, we have justly to admire the keenness of the inquiry of 
Heroaotus. 

" Beyond Elephantin," the boundary of Egypt, says he, " the 
country becomes rugged, and in that part they drag on the boat, 
fastening a cord on either side as you would to an ox. Should the 
hawser break the boat is forced back by the violence of the current. 
This navigation continues four days, the Nile winding like the 
Meander; and it is a space of twelve schaeni (nearly 82 English 



THE COURSE OF THE NILE. 15 

miles) over which you must navigate in this manner. Next you 
come to a smooth plain where the Nile flows round an island called 
Tachompso. The parts above Elephantin are inhabited by Ethiop- 
ians as well as one-half of the island, the other half of which is 
held by the Egyptians. Close to the island is a vast lake on whose 
shores dwell Ethiopian nomads. Crossing this lake you fall again 
into the stream of the Nile, which flows into the above lake. Then, 
disembarking you will perform a journey of forty days upon the 
bank of the river; for in this part of the Nile sharp rocks rise 
above the water, and many shoals are met with among which it is 
impossible to navigate. Having past through this country you 
will again embark in another boat and navigate for twelve days 
after which you will come to an extensive city, the name of which 
is Meroe, and as some say, the capital of the rest of Ethiopia. 
The inhabitants here pay divine honors to Jupiter and Bacchus 
only, but these they worship with the extremest veneration. At 
this place is an oracle of Jupiter, whose declarations they permit 
with the most implicit obedience to regulate all their martial expe- 
ditions." 

If we compare this general statement of Herodotus with respect 
to the route with the general statements of late explorers we shall 
find that what in their nature are not liable to change, such as 
rocks and cliffs, still answer t» his description ; while, in other 
matters, supposing Herodotus to have been rightly informed, 
some changes seem to have taken place. The river contains many 
islands of which a more accurate statement is wanting, but the lake 
through which it is said to flow is the great difficulty. The river, 
it is true, sometimes expands to a greater or less extent, but a lake 
nowhere in this region appears. It is not an unreasonable suppo- 
sition that the surface features of that whole country may have 
changed a good deal since the time of Herodotus, and that what 
was once a lake may have become filled up with sand. At any rate 
at the time of the yearly floods, it is certain that the Nile in many 
parts, where the mountain chains run back and permit the waters 
to overspread the whole valley, presents the appearance of a lake. 

Since the researches of Livingston and Stanley have been pub- 
lished I believe that very many people interested in the subject 
have come to the conclusion, either that the lake called Nianza is 
the Nile's source, or that the proper source is so connected with it 
that the Nile may be said to flow through this lake, somewhat per- 
haps as we know the Kiver Rhone flows through the Lake of 



16 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Geneva, or the Jordan through the Lake of Tiberias. But Nianza 
could not have been the lake here referred to by Herodotus as the 
locality cannot once be suspected of asvvering thereto. 

Above the second cataract, which is near Wady Halta, 21° 50' N. 
Lat., the bed of the river is often interrupted by rocky shoals which 
cause rapids. Senkowsky, the Polish traveler, enumerated five of 
these ; besides the two near Wady Haifa ; a third near Wady Altyr ; 
a fourth near Wady Ambigo ; a fifth under 21°, near Wady Lamule, 
beyond winch Burkhardt met with two others, the farthest being 
on the northern boundary of the kingdom of Dongola, 19V2° N. L. 
This far he states the navigation of the river to have been ob- 
structed ; while Caillaud continues the obstructions to Merawe, forty- 
five leagues farther, where the Great Falls begin. The Arabian 
geographers, who seem to reckon as one all the cataracts enumer- 
ted by Senkowsky, place the first cataract in Nubia, near Bakin, 
ten days journey above Es-Souan, which is the same as that of 
Wady Haifa; the second near the island Sai, 20V2° ; and the last 
near the fortress of Astemun. But we must not expect exact 
uniformity in those enumerations of travelers, for the bed of the 
river in the whole of this course is rocky or shoally ; according to 
the depth of the water there may appear to be more or less cata- 
racts ; and two cataracts may easily be reckoned for one. 

Above the northern boundary of Dongola, the features of the 
country become much changed ; the mountain chains retire farther 
back ; the Nile, hitherto frequently pressed into a narrow channel, 
here spreads out into many branches, which enclose a number of 
fertile islands, adorned with palm groves, vineyards and meadows 
covered with numerous herds, especially camels. "Everything," 
says Hanbury, " might here be found in abundance ;" the hopes this 
expression gave rise to, however, seem to have been in many cases' 
disappointed, arising from the devastations of warfare; but in a 
normal and peaceful state of the country they would doubtless be 
realizable to a large degree. 

The foregoing researches bring us to the neighborhood of the 
confluence of the Astaboras or Tacazze and the Nile, that is, to the 
beginning of the ancient island of Meroe. We will, doubles*, find 
it expedient to take a stand here, and, before advancing farther, 
become somewhat acquainted with the monuments of the Nile's 
valley, to which the name of Nubian has been given. The nature of 
the monuments requires this distinction, as the region of the pyra- 
mids begins in Meroe; there has not been discovered any trace of 



ANCIENT NUBIAN MONUMENTS. 17 

them in Nubia ; and the various idea of the Egyptian, Nubian, and 
Meroean monuments will have become sufficiently clear before the 
whole sequel be got through with. There is little more necessary 
in this connection than to enumerate the Nubian temples in suc- 
cession. 

The valley of the Nile on both sides of the river was once dotted 
with towns and villages, of which Pliny has left us the names of 
only twenty on each side. In his time the large ones no longer ex- 
isted, and he informs us that they were not destroyed by Roman 
wars but by the earlier contentions between Ethopia and Egypt. 
These places must of necessity have been quite ancient, and, although 
no very evident proof exists of any of those places having been re- 
markably flourishing cities, still the great population of the upper 
valley of the Nile favors our carrying them back to an early period 
of the Pharaohs. 

The great works on architecture here, as well as in Egypt, were 
confined to public edifices. The Nubian, during the day, lived al- 
most entirely in the open air, his dwelling being little more than a 
resting place for him during the night. No wonder, then, that 
those slightly-built cities, which were merely huts congregated to- 
gether, should have diappeared frorn or in the earth, or have dwin- 
dled down to mere hamlets. Notwithstanding this the ancient 
Parembole is still found in the present Debut or Debod ; the name 
of Taphis is preserved in Tafa ; Kalabshe is the ancient Talmis ; 
Pselcis is the present Dakke ; Metacompso is the modern Kobban ; 
further south, Primis is now Abrim ; all these are on the northern 
side of the first Nubian cataract or Wady Haifa. But, though the 
splendid dwellings of man have disappeared, the ruins, at least, of 
those of the gods remain. The series of temples begin again on 
both sides of the Nile, almost immediately above the Egyptian cat- 
aracts. The first is that of Debod, twelve miles beyond Philae, on 
the western bank of the Nile. At nearly the same distance that of 
Kandassy; and at only five miles further that of Tafa. At nearly 
the same distance again are the two temples of Kalabshe, the one 
built above the ground, and the other hewn in the rock. At about 
ten miles more the temple of Dandour ; and, again, at a like dis- 
tance, the temple of Ghyrshe, partly hewn out of a rock and partly 
above ground. In ten miles more the temple of Dakke ; and at 
the same distance that of Maharaka, and sixteen miles thence that 
of Seboa, half built in the earth and half above the surface. 

Thirty miles farther on stands the temple of Derar ; and sixty 
2— b 



18 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

miles farther, the temple in the rocks of Ebsambal, with its colossi, 
forty-eight miles below the second or first Nubian cataract of Wady 
Haifa, near to which stands another temple. Beyond this the 
chain is broken and does not recommence till about one hundred 
and fifty miles have been passed over, below the isle of Sai, where 
we meet with a large temple, and then thirty miles onward is discov- 
ered the temple of Soleb, which Burkhardt takes for the most 
southern temple of the Egyptian model. 

The first chain ends here, but a new one begins at the frontiers 
of the ancient Meroe ; for at about two hundred miles further, near 
Merawe and Gibel el Birkel, lying contiguous, the temples appear 
accompanied by groups of pyramids. 

About two hundred and forty miles beyond this we come to the 
junction of the Nile and Astaboras, immediately across which we are 
entered into the island Meroe, and proceeding about ninety miles 
further, we arrive at the temples and pyramidic ruins of the ancient 
city of the same name, whose location we must now define as 
clearly as possible. 

Herodotus only mentions the city of Meroe while all the other 
early writers describe Meroe as an island with a city of the same 
name. The}', therefore, do not in this case contradict Herodotus, 
whose general statements concerning the location of Meroe agree 
with theirs. In what he told us as to the Nile's course above 
Egypt, he advises us to leave the vessel near the island Tachompso, 
in order to avoid the cataracts, and to make a forty days' journey 
on land near the banks of the river, after which a new voyage of 
twelve days will bring us to the city of Meroe. 

The fixing of the journey near the bank of the river was thought 
to be the safest, as by this course the Nubian desert was avoided, al- 
though by following the various bendings of the stream the distance 
was very much lengthened. There has, however, been hitherto 
much vagueness in those statements, as the windings of the river 
had not been pointed out with such minuteness and accuracy as was 
required. 

According to Waddington's map the distance from the second 
cataract, or the first Nubian, that at Wady Haifa, to the junction 
with the Tacazze, is six hundred geographical miles; to which must 
be added one hundred and twenty geographical miles from Kalabshe, 
where we supposed the island of Tachompso is and where Herodo- 
tus advises to leave the boat, to Wady Haifa. However uncertain, 
therefore, the reckoning may remain the forty days journey will 



ANCIENT MEROE OF jETHIOPIA. 10 

take us into the territory of Atbara, between the Nile and the As- 
taboras, to the northern part of the empire of Meroe or of Sennaar. 

"The Astaboras," says Agatharchides, "which flows through 
Ethiopia, unites its streams with the greater Nile and therby forms 
the island of Meroe by flowing around it." 

" The Nile," says Strabo, " receives two great rivers, which run 
from the east out of some lakes and encompass the great island of 
Meroe. One is called the Astaboras, which flows on the eastern 
side, the other Astapus. Some mention instead the Astosabas and 
distinguished therefrom the Astapus, which runs in a course very 
nearly parallel with the Nile. Seven hundred stadia (about 79V2 
English miles) above the junction of the Nile and the Astaboras is 
the city of Meroe, bearing the same name as the island." 

To these statements, which would of themselves be quite sufficient 
to determine precisely the position of Meroe", I will add the state- 
ment of Pliny. " In the midst of Ethiopia," says he, " the Nile 
bears the name of Astapus. It here forms great islands which it 
scarcely flows around in five days, especially the island of Meroe, 
where its left branch is called the Astaboras and the right Astaspes. 
It first takes the name of the Nile where all those branches unite." 

A glance at my map of the Nile's valley will, therefore, show 
where the ancient Meroe is found. The Astaboras which flows 
around it on the eastern side is the present Atbar or Tacazze, which 
runs through Temesis, down from the country of the Gojam. 
The Astapus which bounds it on the west is the modern Bahar el 
Abiad or White River, which is said to be the proper Nile. That 
which is marked on my map, as according to Brown, Horncman, 
Lyon and Burkhardt, the Blue river, the Arabian geographers ap- 
pear to call the Green Nile and make it the proper Nile instead of 
the White river, as according to all the moderns; while to the As- 
taboras or Tacazze, which flows on the east side of Meroe, they 
appear to give the name of Blue river. Not only the names of the 
streams but the local names have been changed by the Arabians and 
Turks, since they have had the dominancy in those countries, which 
introduces no little confusion, when we try to trace topography as 
according to the ancients. I am satisfied that either the White river 
or the Blue river, as marked on my map, is to be taken as the proper 
Nile ; doubtless the former, as according to the general modern un- 
derstanding. 

Diodorus (1. c.) is found to have accurately stated the size of the 
island of Meroe as three thousand stadia or three hundred and forty 



20 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

English miles in length and one thousand stadia or one hundred and 
thirteen miles in breath. 

And, finally, Pliny determines its distance in miles from Syene in 
Egypt. Eratosthenes, he says, computed it at 525, and Artemidorus 
at 600 Roman miles. Shortly before his time, he says, under Nero, 
the distance was measured and found to be 873 Roman miles to the 
nearest point of the island. Now, all those different measures 
may have been correct according to the routes taken. The Roman 
commissioners having followed in the whole journey the course of 
the Nile chose very much the longest way. The Greek geographers 
reckoned according to the short caravan route, which, leaving the 
Nile, strikes across the desert of Bahiuda. Bruce went by a still 
shorter way from Meroe to Assouan as he ventured to pass directly 
across the great Nubian desert, the same route taken by Burkhardt 
on his return. 

From the foregoing statements the following general conclusions 
are not only admissible but safe : — 

1st. That the ancient island of Meroe is the present province of At- 
bar, between the river of the same name (anciently called the Asta- 
boras or Tacazze,) on the east and the White river or the Nile on the 
west. The point where the island begins is at the junction of the 
Tacazze and the Nile. In the south it is enclosed by the Walduba, a 
branch of the Tacazze, and the Bahad a branch of the White Nile, 
whose sources are nearly in the same district, although they flow in 
different directions.* It lies between 13° and 18°N. Lat. In recent 
times it has formed a great part of the kingdom of Seunaar and the 
southern part belongs to Abyssinia. 

2dly. Meroe was a considerably extensive district surrounded by 
rivers, whose superficial content was about forty thousand square 
miles. It cannot, of course, in the strictest sense of the word be 
called an island, because, although very nearly, it is not completely 
enclosed by rivers; but it was taken for an island of the Nile, be- 
cause, as Pliny expressly sa}'s, the various rivers, which flow round 
it, were all considered as branches of that stream. Bruce, however, 
informs us that it becomes in the rainy season a complete island, 
consequent upon the overflowing of the rivers. 

3rdly. Upon this island stood the city of the same name. From 



♦If deemed necessary see the large map of Bruce, whereon will be found all the small streams 
and their tributaries, whose names are not given on other maps. The map I give will, how- 
ever, with a little attention.be entirely sufficient to determine what is here spoken of to the 
satisfaction of most persons. 



LOCATION OF ANCIENT MEROE 21 

the statements of Herodotus alone we cannot determine precisely the 
site of this city. According to Eratosthenes, however, it lay seven 
hundred stadia (nearly eighty English miles) southwards or 
rather a little southeastwards of the junction of the Tacazze or 
Astaboras and the Nile, Pliny, following the statements of com- 
missioners, whom Nero had sent to explore it, reckons seventy 
milliaria, sixty-three English miles, and adds the important 
determining fact that near it in the river on the right side going up 
stream is the small island Tadu, which serves as a port to the city. 
From this it may be concluded with certainty that the ancient city, 
Meroe, was not on the Tacazze or Astaboras, as might otherwise 
be conjectured from the names of those rivers being so unsettled, 
but on the Nile proper: and its situation, notwithstanding the 
difference of nearly seventeen miles between Eratosthenes and 
Pliny may be determined with the minutest accuracy by the small 
island, just mentioned, which Bruce has noted upon his map. 

4thly. Therefore, the ancient city of Meroe stood a little south- 
east of the present Shendy, under 17° north latitude, nearly nine 
hundred miles on a parallel of latitude or a bee line from the 
Great Pyramid of Egypt, and in 52° east longitude. 

Bruce saw its ruins at a'distance. He says: " On the 20th of 
October in the evening we left Shendy and rested two miles from 
the town and about a mile from the river ; the next day the 21st, we 
continued our journey ; at nine we alighted to feed our camels under 
some trees, having gone about ten miles. At this place begins a 
large island in the Nile, several miles long, full of villages, trees 
and corn ; it is called Kurgos. Opposite to this is the mountain 
Gibbainy, where is the first scene of ruins I have met with since 
that of Axurn in Abyssinia. We saw here heaps of broken pedes- 
tals, like those of Axum, all plainly designed for the statues of the 
dog. Some pieces of obelisks likewise with hierogliphics totally 
obliterated. The Arabs told us these remains were very extensive 
and that many pieces of statues both of men and animals have 
been dug up there. The statues of the men were mostly of black 
stone. It is impossible to avoid risking a guess that this is the 
ancient Meroe." Thus Bruce. 

But what he and Burkhardt only saw at a distance and hastily has 
since been carefully examined by later travelers and set forth in 
drawings. These inquiries have, however, shown that the anti- 
quities of Meroe are not confined to a single spot, but are found in 
many localities. The whole strip of land from Shendy to Gherri 



22 CKEATOK AND COSMOS. 

teems with them, and, with respect to such antiquities, may { * 
considered classic ground. Much north of the island a group is 
found, that of Mount Berkal, which are concluded to have belonged 
to the Meroean class of monuments. 

The antiquities of Meroe are arranged under three principal 
groups, those of Assur, of Naga and of Messura ; that of Assur 
lies a little to the north of Shendy, at about two miles from the 
Nile. The two others run southward, more towards the desert and 
are at some leagues distance from the Nile. The monuments still 
found consist of temples and pyramids ; all private dwellings, per- 
taining to those ancient communities have long ago crumbled away 
and disappeared. According to Strabo they were built of only the 
frail materials of split palm trees and tiles ; but the earth is in many 
places now so covered over with bricks as to leave it not doubtful 
that a city formerly stood here. Tlie site of the ancient city of 
Meroe is still discoverable by the remains of a few temples and of 
many other edifices of sandstone. 

To the east of Assur is the great church yard of pyramids so- 
called. It is impossible to behold without astonishment the number 
of those monuments, eighty being mentioned in the plan of Cail- 
laud ; but the number cannot be well ascertained as the ruins of 
many are doubtful. They are divided into three groups, one due 
east from the city ; the two others a league from the river, one 
north the other south. The most northern one is the largest and 
best preserved. They indeed appear dwarfish in comparison with 
the monuments of a similar kind in middle Egypt, the height of the 
largest not being over eighty feet ; but from their number they are 
more wonderful. They are built of granite and most of the largest 
of them have a temple-like building in the Egyptian style, a pylon 
and a door which leads into a portico and this again through a 
sanctuary into the pyramid. It does not, therefore, seem to have 
been the desire here as in Egypt to conceal the entrance. Whether 
the interior of any of these have been examined, so as to determine 
whether sarcophagi and mummies have been found therein or 
whether any such thing have been found beyond Egypt south of 
Phylae and the cataracts, I am not aware. 

According to Strabo, however, the Ethiopians did not embalm 
their dead, but buried them in a different manner, in earthen ves- 
sels near the sanctuary. The corners of the pyramids are partially 
ornamented and the walls of the Pylons are decorated with sculp- 
tures, that on the largest pyramid, drawn by Caillaud, representing 



ANCIENT EMPIRE OF MEROE. 23 

an offering for the dead. In one compartment a female warrior 
with the royal ensign on her head and richly attired, drags for- 
ward a number of captives as offerings to the gods ; upon the 
other she is in a warlike habit, about to destroy the same group, 
whose heads are fastened together by the top hair, as appears also 
upon the ruins of Naga. On a third relief in the sanctuary she is 
making an offering of frankincense to the goddess. Annubis 
appears on a fourth field with a burning light in his hand, accom- 
panied by the jackal, the guardian of the lower world. This 
representation, together with the magnitude of the pyramid, is 
thought to indicate the probability of its being the sepulchre of 
a king. In Ethiopia, and consequently in Meroe' the pyramidal archi- 
tecture was native from the earlier ages, whether or not the pyra- 
mids were there used or partially used as sepulchres of kings. But, 
if this Ethiopic pyramidal architecture be compared with the 
Egyptian, another proof appears of what may be thought to have 
been already established, namely that that peculiar species of 
architecture, which may have had its origin in Ethiopia was per- 
fected in Egypt. 

Ruppel, of Frankfort, who also visited Meroe, not only confirms 
the statement of Caillaud, but goes farther and informs us of sim- 
ilar groups of pyramids in the Island of Kurgos. " After having 
been for some time in sight of the ruins of Kurgos, which, are 
also mentioned by Bruce, I was at last able to go and examine them 
under a guard. On the other side of the Nile my way la}' for fifty- 
seven minutes through the slime or mud. Traces were visible of 
ancient canals, running parallel with the bed of the Nile, a proof 
that this territory was once highly cultivated. Ten minutes after 
I came to a great heap of hewn and burnt stones. Time, however, 
had destroyed everything. With difficulty were some shafts of 
columns discovered, whose capitals were ornamented with the heads 
of animals ; proofs that this was the site of ancient temples. 

Twelve minutes farther a group of pyramidic mausolea. There 
were thirteen, all of hewn stone, forty feet high without an entrance. 
Near them was a lion's head in black granite, evidently a sitting 
sphinx. Thirty minutes farther east a group far more considerable 
than the former of twenty -one tombs. Some were of the pyramidal 
form with indented borders of plain workmanship. One of these 
monuments, the most southerly, differs from all the others. A 
prismatic steeple stands upon a socle twenty feet square. It has, 
like the rest, an eastern entrance, leading to the hall or gallery, as 



24 CREATOR AXD COSMOS. 

in the sepulchres of Meroe (Assur). The walls are ornamented 
with beautiful sculpture ; the reliefs like those at Meroe, but in 
greater perfection, they invariably represent the apotheosis of the 
dead. Among those pyramids there is one, as among those at 
All roe, peculiar on account of its entrances. On both sides of this 
are two female figures, holding lances in their hands and in the act 
of piercing with them a band of prisoners. The drapery, grouping 
and keeping of this surpasses everything of the kind I have seen in 
Nubia and Egypt, not even excepting the temple of Tentyres. 
They are free from the stiffness which is found in the Briareus of 
this place. Those ornaments from their preservation seem of 
later date than those at Meroe. 

A third group is mot with five minutes southeast of the foregoing. 
It consists of nine pyramids, each with its entrance towards the 
east, the inner walls of which are covered with sculpture. The re- 
liefs represent apotheoses o,f female figures only, while in all others 
they represent heroes, to whom offerings are brought. These south- 
ern sepulchres are also less than the others, the height not being 
above forty feet. In the group of twenty-one pyramids there are 
some which measure ninety feet. All of these monuments are built 
of hewn stone without mortar." Thus Prof. Kuppel. 

The monuments of Naga and Messura to the south of Shendy are 
not pyramids but temples. In the city of Meroe two temples, a 
larger and a smaller, though neither of them seems to have been of 
any greater architectural magnificence, are laid down in the plan of 
Caillaud. A recent traveler has ascertained that the larger tem- 
ples wei'e not in the city but at a few miles distance. 

At about eighteen miles southeast of Shendy lie the monuments 
of Naga or Naka and at about the same distance east of the Nile. 
The}' consist of numerous temples of which a large one lies in the 
center and various smaller ones are scattered around in every direc- 
tion. The ruins show that at one time there stood here a consid- 
erable city. The remains of the principal temple show unmistakably 
to what God it was dedicated. An avenue of statues, rams couch- 
ant on pedestals, leads into an open portico of ten columns, out of 
which, after passing through a second similar galleiy, we arrive at 
the pylon. Adjoining this is a colonnade consisting of eight col- 
umns ; then a hall, and through a third door is the sanctuary. 
The door, the pillars and the walls of the sanctuary are of hewn 
stone ; the rest are of brick with a coating upon which traces of 
painting are visible. The pylons aud the pillars are ornamented 



ANTIQUITIES OF ANCIENT MEROE. 25 

with sculptures highly finished. Those on the first pylon, on each 
side of the entrance, are especially remarkable. A king and queen 
bearing the emblems of dominion, are in a kindly manner, wel- 
comed bv tbe deities ; the hitter by Amun with the ram's head and 
the former by the same in human shape, but without further mark 
of distinction. In the freize above oblations are offered by both 
to the same deities; below, at the bottom, are maidens with ves- 
sels out of which they are pouring water. The building is in the 
Egyptian style and of a great size. The whole, from the first pylon 
to the end, is about eighty feet long. In the entrance there is this 
peculiarity ; the duplicate gallery of rams, before and after the 
portico, is not common elsewhere ; and the plan of the whole seems 
to show that architecture had not yet attained to the perfection 
which it afterwards exhibits in the great temples of Egypt. The 
western temple is smaller, but more fully decorated with sculpture. 
On the pylons the same scenes are again represented, as we have 
already beheld in the pyramids of Assur. A male warrior on one 
side and a female warrior on the other destroy a number of cap- 
tives, whom they have bound together by the hair. The captives 
appear wholly in the power of these warriors and the scene may be 
meant to symbolize the absolute power of the deity over all man- 
kind. The emblems of dominion, the ureus on the head dress; 
over each being also a spread eagle with a globe ; and their mag- 
nificent attire show these warriors to be king and queen. The 
sculpture below it exhibits a train of single captives with their 
hands tied behind them. The reliefs on the interior represent the 
sacrifice of the prisoners to the gods. In the upper row appear the 
five male dieties, Amun with his followers, first the god with the 
lion's head and the ornament with the ram's horns; behind him 
Annul himself; Re, the sun god ; Phtha, his son ; and then, again 
Amun with the ram's head. In the under row appear the females 
in an equal number; first, Isis, who has already seized and holds 
fast the group of captives offered to her. The offerings are over 
the king followed by the men and under the queen by women. The 
following sub-scene is still more noticeable. In it appears the 
same god with the lion's head and the ram's horns on the head 
dress, but having a double head and four arms. It is the only sub- 
ject of this sort, so far as has come to my knowledge, that has 
come under the observation of any explorer from the sources to 
the mouth of the Nile. It is unique and might be thought to have 
been borrowed from the Indian mythology. The king approaches 



26 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the god from one side and the queen from the other with tablets 
in their hands. 

These representations, it is seen, possess many peculiarities 
and are not purely, but perhaps pre-Egypiian, more especially as to 
religious rites. In the worship of Amun and his kindred gods 
there appears here nothing essentially differing from the style of 
Upper Egypt. The relief already mentioned, with the male and 
female deities, contains this family of gods almost complete. In 
the persons offering, however, appears most noticeable differences. 
The queens appear with the kings, and not merely as presenting 
offerings, but as heroines and conquerors. Nothing of this kind 
has yet been discovered either in the reliefs of Egypt or Nubia. 
It has, therefore, reasonably been concluded that they are subjects 
peculiar to Ethiopia, that is, such as relate to the ancient rulers, 
male and female, of Meroe, and are devoted to the perpetuation of 
the record of their deeds and their devotion, such as that was, to 
the gods. A reference to ancient history will assist us to a general 
understanding here : " Among the Ethiopians," says Strabo (p. 
1177, speaking of Meroe), "the women are also armed." Upon 
the relief at Thebes representing the conquest of Ethiopia by Se- 
sostris there is a queen with her sons, who appears before him as a 
captive. A long succession of queens under the appellation of 
Candace (Pliny VI. 35) must have reigned here ; and when at last 
the seat of government was moved from Meroe to Napata, near 
Mount Berkal, there was then also a queen who ruled under the 
title Candace. (Strabo, p. 820, Book of Acts, ch. VIII. 27.) Al- 
though history has preserved so little on the subject, it is, therefore, 
not strange but quite in agreement with Ethiopian manners in those 
ages, to see a queen represented in a warlike habit near her hus- 
band. 

The perfection to which sculpture had been brought here is quite 
remarkable. In the Egyptian monuments there is in general noth- 
ing superior to it and in boldness of outline it seems even to surpass 
them. " These colossal figures," says Caillaud (speaking of some 
ten feet high he had seen here), " are remarkable for the richness of 
their drapery and the character of the drawing; their feet and arms 
are stouter than the Egyptian ; yet are they altogether in the Egypt ian 
style." In the case of the pyramids of Kurgos Ruppel notices a 
similiar perfection. Some suppose those monuments belong to that 
brilliant period of the empire of Meroe, the eighth century B. C, 
when the Ethiopian dynasty of Sabachus and Tirhaka ruled over 



ANTIQUITIES OF MERGE. 27 

Egypt, to whom as they suppose, it would have been easy to send 
Egyptian artists to Meroe, to perpetuate their fame in their sculp- 
tural and generally artistic workmanship. What our hypothesis is 
concerning the origin of the Egyptian civilization will be remem- 
bered here, namely, that it descended the Nile's valley by means of 
colonization and was transplanted into Egypt in germ ; where, hav- 
ing taking root, by genial influences it was brought to that perfec- 
tion which to our knowledge it attained. 

The second station, now called el Messura, for a description and 
drawing of which we are indebeted to M. Caillaud (Plate XVII. 
Explication), is equally interesting. "In an extensive valley in 
the desert," says he, " eight hours journey from Shendy to the 
southeast and six leagues from the Nile, are very considerable 
ruins. They consist of eight small temples, all connected by gal- 
leries upon terraces. It is an immense building, formed by the 
joining together of a number of chambers, courts, temples and gal- 
leries, surrounded by a double inclosure. From the temple in 
the midst the way to the other is through galleries or terraces, one 
hundred and eighty-five feet in length. Each temple has its par- 
ticular chamber. These bindings are placed in exact order and 
consist of eight temples, thirty-nine chambers twenty-six courts 
twelve flights of steps, etc. The ruins cover a plat of land two 
thousand five hundred feet in circumference. 

But in the immensity of ruins everything is upon a smaller 
scale, the monuments as well as the materials employed. The 
largest temple is only thirty-four feet long; upon the pillars are 
figures in the Egyptian style ; others in the same portico are fluted 
like the Grecian ; upon the basis of one I thought I discovered the 
remains of a Zodiac. Time and the elements, which have de- 
stroyed accient Saba, seem to have been willing to spare us the 
observatory of Meroe ; but until the rubbish be cleared away a 
complete plan of it cannot be expected. To find so few heiro- 
glyphics in all those ruins excites, indeed, our wonder. The six 
pillars, which form the portico of the middle temple, are the only 
ones containing any, all the other walls being without sculpture. 

Some hundred paces from the ruins are the remains of other 
smaii temples; and the traces of a great reservoir of water, sur- 
rounded by little hills, which protect it from the sand. There is 
here, however, no trace of a city, no heap of rubbish, no sepul- 
chre. If the city of Meroe had been here the pyramids would not 
have been built at a distance from it of two days' journey. Some 



28 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

think the form and the architecture prove that the public offices of 
Meroe were here and that the city was in the neighborhood of the 
sepulchres where the pyramids are. 

It has been concluded that this is the site of the ancient oracle of 
Jupiter Amnion ; first from the suggestion of the ground plan ; and, 
secondly, because it is only thus that the singularity of the founda- 
tion can be accounted for, of that labyrinth of passages and courts 
which must be gone through before arriving at the entirely secret 
temple in the midst. Some have, indeed, supposed that there are 
here also subterranean passages as in the Egyptian Labyrinth. 
A passage of Diodorus defines more accurately the site of the ancient 
temple and strikingly confirms the above notion. It informs us 
that this temple did not stand in the city of Meroe, but at some 
distance from it, in the desert, as it is here situated. When, in the 
period of the Ptolemies, the then ruler of Meroii overthrew the 
dominion of the priests, he went with an armed company to the 
retired spot, where the sanctuary with the golden temple stood, 
surprised the priests and killed them. (Diodorus, 1, p. 178.) The 
passage in Strabo says that he went with armed men to the sacred 
place (r<; hpov~) where the golden temple (>rwr) or ship (vaai) as 
according to some, stood. Thus we see that in some ancient nations 
and languages the word for ship, or a dialectic variation of it, meant 
also a temple, as we have Noah's Ark, a ship and the Ark of the 
covenant or of the temple, a temple in miniature. " The smallness 
of the principal temple," says Prof. Heeren, "is not surprising; 
the same thing has been observed at Ammonium in the Libyan 
desert. It was probably a place merely for the preservation of the 
sacred ship, which stood between the pillars of the sanctuary." 
This idea would appear to connect those peoples around the Red and 
Caspian and Mediterranean seas, around the Tigris, the Euphrates 
and the Nile to its sources, in short in all those adjacent parts of 
Asia and Africa, as subject to the same general civilization, varia- 
tions of the same system of religion, and, as related to each other, 
by a common ultimate origin. 

The situation of this in the retired spot near Meroe is in a way 
similar to that in the Libyan desert spot spoken of before and will 
appear still more singular on further consideration, and especially 
when it is considered that one of the great trading routes passes 
just by it. 

As the principal temple was so small, the others which are called 
temples may be considered merely as chapels, but it remains yet 



ANTIQUITIES OF MEROE. 29 

uncertain for what particular uses they wei - e designed. Hence, 
Caillaud in the explanation to his plates designates them " construc- 
tions." The separate members were small, but the aggregate was 
great. 

Very remarkable here is the rarity of sculpture and hieroglyphics ; 
no trace of that Egyptian art has been discovered, the new figures 
on the pillars now scarcely legible having nothing in common 
with it. One of them has the hair done up in the broad Nubian 
fashion. 

In what relation the institutions at Messura stood to those at 
Naga can only be surmised. If Messura were the oracular temple, 
that body of the priesthood, which had the care of the oracle, 
would have resided there. The number of those in proportion to 
the whole class of ministers would be but small, perhaps only the 
high priest and his assistants. Naga, however, appears to have been 
the metropolis ot the caste. Here stood a number of temples, not 
only dedicated to Ammon, but to the kindred gods and here also, 
are found the remains of a city, which would afford convenient 
dwelling to the priesthood, no traces of which are found in 
Messura. 

" Thus," says Heeren, " we stand on that remarkable spot 
which antiquity frequently regarded as the cradle of the arts and 
sciences ; where hieroglyphic writing was discovered ; where 
temples and pyramids had already sprung up, while Egypt still 
remained ignorant of their existence. Who then can avoid asking 
what was here formerly? What took place here?" (Researches.) 

In order to answer those questions as satisfactorily as is now pos- 
sible, what we have to do is to select from existing records bearing 
on the subject, first, what may be regarded as facts aod then add 
those things that are more or less probable. 

The fact stands well attested, that besides the pastoral and 
hunting tribes which led a nomadic life towards the west and east 
of the Nile's valley, there existed in the immediate valley through 
which the Nile flows a cultivated people, who had from a very early 
period fixed abodes, built cities, temples and sepulchres, the monu- 
ments of whose intelligent industry do now after the lapse of 
so many centuries excite our admiration and astonishment. 

It is further certain that the civilization of this people was in an 
especial manner connected with their religion; that is, with the 
customs and general manner of life connected with the worship of 
certain deities. The remains left of their institutions and the gen- 



30 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

eral history of this people written in stone proves this too clearly 
for any doubt to be entertained upon the subject. 

This religion consisted in the general idea connected with the 
worship of Amnion and his kindred gods. The circle of the Egyp- 
tian deities might possibly have been a little larger than that of Olym- 
pus among the Greeks. It became enlarged by the appearance of 
the same deity in different relations and consequently with changed 
attributes, under different forms and with different head ornaments. 
But the rites of Amnion so much prevailed that his emblem, the 
ram's horns, are seen everywhere and it seldom fails to happen that 
the kindred deities exhibit, in some part or other, something which 
refers to him. There is one thing worthy of remark, namely that of 
all the representations of Nubia, yet come to our knowledge, there is 
not one, which, according to European and American notions of 
propriety is offensive to decency. 

Quite remarkable in this system of religion was the oracular ele- 
ment. Of Africa Amnion was the oracular god. If afterwards, as 
was tho case in Egypt, other deities delivered oracles, yet they 
were of his race and kindred. " The only gods worshiped in 
Meroe," says Herodotus, "are Zeus and Dionysos (which he ex- 
plains to be Amnion and Osiris). They also have an oracle of 
Amnion and undertake their expeditions when and how the god 
commands." 

How those oracles were delivered we learn partly from history, 
partly from the representations on the monuments. In the sanc- 
tuary stands a high ship, upon which are many holy vessels, but, 
above all, in the midst a portable tabernacle, surrounded with cur- 
tains, which may be drawn back. In this is aa image of the god, 
set, according to Diodorus, in precious stones ; nevertheless, ac- 
cording to one account, it could have no human shape. The ships 
in the great temples seem to have been very magnificent. Sesos- 
tris presented one made of cedar to the temple of Amnion at 
Thebes, the inside of which ship was covered with silver and the 
outside with gold. The same was hung about with silver paterae. 
When the oracle was to be consulted it was carried around by a 
body of priests in procession, and from certain movements, either, 
of the god or of the ship, both of which the priests appear to have 
at least understood if not managed, the omens were gathered, ac- 
cording to which the high priest then delivered the oracle. Both 
upon the Nubian and Egyptian monuments this ship is often repre- 
sented, sometimes as stationary and sometimes as carried in pro 



THE ORACLE OF AMUN. 31 

cession ; but never anywhere except in the innermost sanctuary, 
which was its resting-place. The tabernacle is in some cases with- 
out a curtain, in others veiled. Amnion appears in the same sitting 
upon a couch, an altar, furnished with gifts before him. In one 
representation the King is kneeling before the ship at his devotions, 
in another he approaches it with an offering of frankincense. In 
the sanctuary of the rock monument at Derar, in Nubia, we also 
discover it twice, once in procession, borne by a number of priests 
(here the tabernacle is veiled, and the King comes meeting it, 
bringing frankincense) ; in the other representation it is sta- 
tionary. These processions appear not only upon the great Egyp- 
tian temples at Philae, Elephantin and Thebes, but also upon the 
great Oasis. The sacred ship was here the oracle ship. Some 
have supposed the god of the Nile to have been especially set forth 
here as representing the origin and means of fertility in the Nile's 
valley.* 

However, this may have been the oracles, certainly were the 
main support of this religion, and, if we connect with them the local 
features of the country it may be thought to throw light upon the 
origin of this idea. In all this valley fertility is confined to the 
borders of the river. At a short distance from it the desert begins, 
Meroe was a chief point of congregation for the trade of the regions 
of the Upper Nile and of the southern regions of Africa. It was 
the great emporium of the caravan trade between Ethiopia, Northern 
Africa and Egypt, as well as Arabia Felix and even India. Before 
going further it will, therefore, be well for us to learn what the 
ancients have to say concerning the history and political status of 
Meroe. 

According to their accounts Meroe was a city as well as a State, 
which had its constitution and laws, its organized ^government 
and ruler. But the form of this government was a hierarchy, 
one very common in those southern regions. The government 
appears to have been in the hands of a caste of priests, who 
chose from among themselves a king. I shall transcribe here the 
account given of them by Diodorus, which is the most extensive 
and believed to be the most accurate we have. 



* Although, in the ancient Gaelic tongue, Amhain or Abhain is a river, pronounced Aw an, as 
in the oriental countries Abraham, for example, is pronounced Auraham or Aurahau 
(See Leayard's Nineveh, vol. 1, p. 189; also notice the English River Avon), yet, if the name 
Amun, under our consideration, arose from the river Nile or the idea of a river and all that 
pertains thereto, as it is very likely it did, 1 would think the idea would have been more gen- 
eral primitively than as if pertaining to any single stream. 



32 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

"The laws of the Ethiopians," says he, " differ in many respects 
from those of other nations, but in none so much as in the election 
of their kings, which is thus managed. The priests select the most 
distinguished of their own order and upon whichever of these the 
god (Amnion) fixes as he is carried in procession, he is acknowl- 
edged king by the people, who then fall down anil adore him as a 
god, because he is placed over the government by the choice of the 
gods. The person thus selected immediately enjoys all the preroga- 
tives, which are conceded to him by the laws in respect to his mode 
of life ; but he can neither reward nor punish any one beyond what 
the usages of their forefathers and the laws allow. It is a custom 
among them to inflict upon no subject the sentence of death, even 
though he should be legally condemned to that punishment ; but 
they send to the malefactor one of the officers of justice, who bears 
the symbol of death. When the criminal sees this he goes imme- 
diately to his own house and deprives himself of life. The Greek 
custom of evading punishment by flight into a neighboring country 
is not there permitted. It is said that the mother of one, who 
would have attempted this, strangled him with her own girdle in 
order to save her family from that greater ignominy. 

But the most remarkable of all their institutions is that which re- 
lates to the death of the king. The priests at Meroe, for example, 
who attend upon the service of the gods and hold the highest rank, 
send a messenger to the king with an order to die. They make 
known to him that the gods command this and that mortals should 
not withdraw from their decrees ; and perhaps add such reasons as 
could not be controverted by weak understandings, prejudiced by 
custom and unable to oppose anything thereto." Thus Diodorus. 

The government continued in this primitive state till the period 
of the second Ptolemy and its subversion is no less remarkable than 
its formation. By its increased intercourse with Egypt, the light 
of Grecian philosophy and Phoenician intelligence penetrated into 
Ethiopia. Ergamenes, at that time king, tired of being priest-ridden 
(which is the language of a certain writer on this subject ), fell upon 
the priests in their sanctuary, put them all to death and became 
effectually a sovereign ; a result, beyond all doubt, which was not 
generally expected in that dark and distant region. It is true that 
of the history of this State prior to the revolution just mentioned 
only scanty information has been preserved, but yet enough to show 
its high antiquity and its early magnificence. Pliny (VI. 3.3) tells 
us that " Ethiopia was ruined by its wars with Egypt, which it some- 



^THIOPIC-iEGTPTIAN DYNASTY. 33 

times subdued and sometimes'served ; it was powerful and illustrious 
even as far back as the Trojan war, when Memnon reigned. At 
the time of his sovereignty Meroe is said to have contained two 
hundred and fifty thousand soldiers and four hundred thousand 
artificers. They still reckon there forty-five kings." 

In the Persian period Meroe was an independent and important 
state, otherwise Cambyses, as according to Herodotus and Strabo, 
would not have been likely to have made such great preparations 
for an expedition against it which resulted so disastrously. During 
the last dynasty of the Pharaohs at Sais, under Psarnrnetichus, the 
Kingdom of Meroe resisted his yoke, although his son Psammis 
undertook an expedition against Ethiopia. 

If we go a century back of this, say between 800 and 700 B. C. 
we shall come to a flourishing period of the empire, contemporary 
with the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel, where we shall conseqently 
have a light from the Jewish annals in connection with the records 
of Herodotus. This is the period of a powerful Ethiopic rule over 
Egypt for according to Herodotus fifty and according to Eusebius 
forty-four years. 

Herodotus does not represent Sabacus, his Ethiopic-Egyptian 
dynast of this period, either as a tyrant or a barbarian, but as au 
intelligent man and benefactor of his new charge, the Egyptian 
nation, by the construction of dams for the better protection and 
irrigation of the country. 

But of this Ethiopic-Egyptian dynasty Herodotus mentions only 
one name, Sabacus, to whom he gives a reign of fifty years ; 
Eusebius, however, mentions three to whom he gives an aggregate 
reign of forty-four years, namely, Sabacus, twelves years, Seuechus 
twelve, and Tirhako twenty years. I think the conclusion quite 
reasonable here that Sabacus and Seuechus are only different ways 
for spelling the same name, which here stands for the same man. 
The same number of years precisely is given to each of those names 
by Eusebius. And, as Herodotus mentions only Sabacus, it is 
barely possible that Tirhacus would be a family name standing for 
the same form, which in the Gaelic would be Seach, and thus that 
the whole three appellations would stand for the same man. The 
first supposition is, as I say, quite reasonable, the last barely 
possible; for while Sabacus would be a Greek form Herodotus 
might give for Seuachus, then Tirhach-us might be conceived to be 
the family name, as Tir-Seach-us, or child of Seach. For, if in the 
old languages Tir means land, country, it must also have had the 
3— b 



34 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

primitive meaning of 'house,' 'son,' 'child,' by which in com- 
pound, as you perceive, a family name would arise. The fact that 
some authors identify Tirhako with Sethos, the priest-king of 
Herodotus, might be thought to give a degree of probability to this 
last supposition ; for Sethos, root Seth or Seath, it is well known, is 
in the Gaelic exchangeable for Seach. But, without here saying 
anything for or against as to the identification of Tirhako with 
Sethos, I may say that notwithstanding Herodotus mentions only 
one in this dynasty, and as we may take Sabacus and Seuachus as 
two forms of the same name, we shall have here quite a literal 
reading as well as reasonable understanding by making Tirhacus 
both be and mean Son of Seaohus. This would give two generations 
instead of, on the one hand, one, or on the other hand three for 
the forty-four or fifty years. The Jewish annals would seem to 
support the idea of two successive Kings in this dynasty; for the 
Seuachus or Sabacus is the So of 2 Kings xvii, 4, to whom 
Hoshea, King of Israel sent an embassy. Tarhacus or Tirhaco was 
the contemporary of Sennacherib, the successor of Shalmaneser, 
King of Assyria and deterred him (supposed anno 714 B. C.) from 
the invasion of Egypt, merely by the rumor of his advance against 
him (2 Kings xix: 9). The name and fame of Tarhaco was not 
unknown to the Greeks. Eratosthenes in Strabo mentions him as a 
conqueror who had peneti'ated into Europe as far as the Pillars of 
Hercules ; and it is more than probable that he was not the same 
with Sabachus or Seachus, but his successor. 

The kingdom of Meroe, therefore, must certainly about this 
period, and for long ages before have ranked as an important state. 
If we go back two centuries to the time of Asa, the great-grandson 
of Solomon, who ascended the throne of Judah about anno 995, B. 
C, or within twenty years after his grandfather's death, we shall 
find this to be the case. Against him, the Jewish annals inform us, 
came out Zerah, the Ethiopian, with a host of a thousand thousand 
men and three hundred chariots (2 Chron. xiv:9). Michaelis, in 
this case, translates Ethiopian Cushite, which appellation embraces 
both the inhabitants of Arabia Felix and Ethiopia, remarking, 
however, expressly by comparing 2 Chron. xvi, 8, that he must 
have been King of Ethiopia and probably of Arabia Felix as well. 
Although the expression a thousand thousand may merely indicate 
a large army, yet it affords a proof of the strength of the empire, 
which at that time, doubtless, included Arabia Felix ; but the 
chariots of war which had never been in use in Arabia prove that 



^EGYPTIAN CONQUESTS IN ^ETHIOPIA. 35 

the passage refers to Ethiopia proper, as the seat of the govern- 
ment. Farther back than about the year 1000, B. C, or say the 
time of Solomon, the annals of written history are silent, but the 
monuments now begin to speak and affirm that high authority, 
which the traditions of Me roe as well as the generally enlightened 
opinion of antiquity attribute to this state. 

The name of Barneses, called in Greek Sesostris, has been found 
upon many of the Nubian monuments ; and that he was the con- 
queror of Ethiopia is affirmed by Herodotus (ii : 110), and Strabo 
(p 1140). Prof. Heeren, in his Researches (p. 215), 1825, A. 
D., referring to this says : " That the Pharaohs should have carried 
their conquests into Ethiopia could in no period seem less strange 
than in ours ; in which the same scene has been acted. Scarcely 
was the present ruler of Egypt firmly possessed of that kingdom 
than his son, Ismael Pasha, undertook the same conquest, and not 
only penetrated to Meroe, but even at one time as far as Singue 
10° N. Lat." The name of Tuthmoses, has also been found in Nu- 
bia upon one of the ancient monuments of Armada. But in this 
sculpture as well as in the procession, representing the victory 
over Ethiopia, in the offering of the spoil to the gods, there ap- 
pears a degree of civilization, which shows an acquaintance with the 
peaceful arts ; they must, therefore, be attributed to a nation which 
long ere this had an organized government. We thus touch upon 
the Mosaic period in which the Jewish traditions ( Josephus Ant. 
Jud. ii : 10), ascribe the conquest of Meroe to Moses. The tradi- 
tions of the Egyptian priesthood also agree in this that Meroe in 
Ethiopia had laid the foundation of the most ancient states of 
Eg} r pt. But history itself has carried us back to those ages in 
■vhich the formation of the most ancient states took place and has 
clearly shown that Meroe was one of them. 

In the ancient Ethiopic state, as to its government, we cannot 
expect a picture which will bear much similitude to the civilized 
nations of Europe and America. Meroe rather resembled in ap- 
pearance the larger states of interior Africa, with which we are 
acquainted somewhat at the present day ; a number of small 
nations, some with and some without settled abodes, form there 
what is called an empire, although the political bond which holds 
them generally together appears loose and is often scarcely recog- 
nizable. Eratosthenes has handed down to us a picture of the in- 
habitants of Meroe in his time. According to his account the 
island embraced a variety of peoples, of whom some followed 



36 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

agriculture, some a nomadic life and others hunting ; all of them 
choosing that which was thought best adapted to the district in 
which they lived. He says, however, that in his time the nomad 
tribes dwelling to the north of Meroe in Nubia were no longer sub- 
ject to that state. The dominion over roving hordes, it is well 
known, can seldom be very certain, permanent or have fixed bound- 
aries, and it would be rash to apply what Eratosthenes says of his 
times to all the preceding centuries, while on the other hand, we 
learn from the monuments that the rulers of Meroe" lived in almost 
continual warfare with the nomad tribes. 

To the west Meroe was bounded by sandy deserts which separated 
it from Darfour, a place not mentioned by that name in antiq- 
uity; and, to the east, it had for neighbors in the mountains the 
rude Shamgallas, the Troglodytes or the race of Bischaries, at 
about ten or eleven days journey distant from the city of Meroe. 
(Erat. in Strab. 1. c. p. 1134). According to what has been 
recorded those tribes had their own kings or chiefs and were not 
under the dominion of Meroe. 

To the south of Meroe lay a province which by an extraordinary 
condition of affairs had come into possession of a numerous and 
powerful race of Egyptian colonists. When Psammetichus had 
obtained, by the aid of Greek mercenaries, the sole government of 
Egypt, the numerous Egyptian warrior caste, taking great offense 
thereat rebelled against him. They had, indeed, already in the 
foregoing troubles, when the priest-caste intrigued for the sover- 
eignty and thereat for a long time played a winning game, felt 
themselves deeply injured. These Egyptian warriors, 240,000 in 
number, deriding the attempts of the king to detain them, chose 
to expatriate themselves than to submit to the new order of things 
which began with the reign of Psammetichus in Egppt. This took 
place about anno 650 B. C. Having immigrated into Ethiopia, in 
the face of the protestations of Psammetichus, that they were de- 
serting their native country, and going over to the enemy, the king 
of Meroe joyfully received them and appointed them a province, 
whose inhabitants, as noticed before, having been lately in a state 
of rebellion, were expelled in order to make place for these new- 
comers. This district, according to the best informed authorities, 
was the present Gojam, i.e., the land of the strangers, an island 
formed by a deep curve of the Nile, which it makes immediately 
after its rise and then returns, almost in a complete circle, nearly 



COSMOPOLITE CHARACTER OF MEROE. 37 

back to its sources. Their new home, then, was in the neighbor- 
hood of the sources of the Nile. 

Here this numerous Egyptian colony formed a separate state, 
dependent uponMeroe, but governed by its own subordinate kings, 
or rather, at least at a later period, by its queens. Among the 
Ethiopian tribes dwelling in those regions they introduced, as ac- 
cording to Herodotus, civilization, after the general type of the 
Egyptian ; they built cities, the most considerable of which was 
called Sembolytis and another named Esar. This state, which en- 
dured for many centuries, extended itself on the east as far as the 
mountains, and clear traces of it are visible in the histories of those 
countries at later periods. 

The state of Meroe, therefore, in the ages of its existence, com- 
prised a number of different races or tribes, united together by one 
common religion or form of worship which was managed by the 
priests, the most cultivated class of the people, and, in effect, the 
dominant caste. The question as to what race of men this caste 
of priests really belonged to or descended from, some antiquarians 
have thought to be a very interesting one, but it is a question the 
solution of which remains as yet only among the probabilities, 
nothing historically definite having been adduced as to it. This 
much, however, has been concluded as probably certain, namely, 
that the priest caste did not consider themselves as of a race that 
had immigrated to that land, but as primitive to it, in which opin- 
ion they coincided with the people generally of that country. 

If we examine as to whether the information we have or can at- 
tain respecting this race of the Nile's valley will warrant us in con- 
cluding such race as having immigrated into this region or whether 
we can discover in the tribes still existing there the descendants of 
such immigrant race, what we have to do is to examine the monu- 
ments left by the race, as from these the means of our knowledge 
must be largely drawn and as from their innumerable pictures we 
are enabled to judge somewhat in regard to the internal as well as 
the external character of the race. 

In these monumental representations we always discover the 
same formation of countenance, the same shape (except in a few 
figures in the rock sepulchres, which in general display the infancy 
of the art); the same color, and although with many variations, 
yet, upon the whole, the same rich costume. The countenance has 
in it nothing of what we now understand as the negro variety, it is 
a handsome profile ; the body is tall and slender ; the hair straight 



38 CRDATOR AXD COSMOS. 

or slightly curled; the color a reddish brown. That the color in 
the painted reliefs was that of the people represented no one will 
doubt who has seen Belzoni's plates of the royal sepulchre at 
Abusambal. It is unnecessary to understand that the color in na- 
ture was exactly the same ; the artists, in this respect, were per- 
haps limited by their materials ; but it appears plain that the race 
intended to be depicted was neither white nor black, but of a color 
between these two, namely, dark-brown. The Nubian race is now 
supposed to most exactly represent them. Though the color, 
through slight intermixture with female negro slaves, is becoming 
somewhat darker, yet the same shape, the same profile, and the 
same moral characteristics are still to be found, as far as this can 
be expected in their present degenerate state. The Nubian, says 
an eye-witness, is thin and slender and beautifully formed ; and his 
beauty is as unchangeable as that of a statute. He has more cour- 
age and daring than the Arabian. Thev are of a dark-brown color, 
with hair either naturally curly or artificially arranged by the women, 
• but not at all woolly. Neither their external appearance nor their 
language allow us to give them an Arabian origin. They were once, 
according to Strabo, a mighty nation spreading out on both sides 
of the Nile. They are now pressed back into its valley ; scarcely 
more than the ruins of a nation; but it has been impossible alto- 
gether to suppress them. Their ancient civilizations was closely 
connected with their religion and naturally declined with it ; inter- 
mixture with foreigners, wars and oppressions helped on the degra- 
dation ; all that now can be expected in their case is but a shadow 
of what they once were. (Strabo, pp. 1134-5, Leagh and others. ) 
But, whoever will compare closely the descriptions of them given 
by modern travelers with the representations upon the reliefs, will 
not fail to recognize the same general physical appearance, and the 
same countenance. They even still carry the same weapons, the 
long, often two edged spear, the great shield of hippopotamus- 
skin, with which they so often appear upon the monuments, and 
by which even the prophet characterizes them (Jer. xlvi., 9): and 
if the richness of their dress has been exchanged for lighter habila- 
ments it may be considered that the temperature of the climate 
renders these ornaments rather than necessary clothing. All these 
distinguishing marks are, as stated, in the nature of probabilities 
and not founded upon historical evidence as ordinarily understood; 
but the views here given of the subject may be considered as iust 
until replaced by others evidently more probable. 



MUTUAL CIVILIZATION OF ^ETHIOPIA AND iEGYPT. 39 

The question which will be expected to follow this in considera- 
tion is: whether Ethiopia and especially Meroe was the parent of 
the civilization of the Nile's valley, which descended thence into 
Egypt ; or whether civilization ascended the Nile from Egypt into 
Ethiopia? I have before indicated partially what ray mind was on 
this. I have stated that we had historical evidence that rulers of 
Meroe were at certain periods rulers of- Egypt ; and, on the other 
hand, that some of the Pharaohs extended their dominion over 
Ethiopia. What, therefore, could be more natural than that those 
nations would be mutually effected by being brought into close con- 
tact and general intercourse with each other ; and as the erection of 
monuments, temples and their appurtenances formed so essential a 
part of the rites of the religion of Amnion, that the Pharaohs, when 
they ruled over Ethiopia, or the Ethiopian kings when they ruled 
over Egypt should, on both sides, have endeavored to perpetuate 
their memories in these respective countries by the foundation of 
temples and the erection and decoration of monuments? That this 
was so in effect is proved by the structures which exist in those 
countries as well as in Nubia, which lies between them, and by 
reliefs which decorate those structures and temples. 

Those, therefore, who derive the civilization of Egypt from 
Ethiopia and especially from Meroe do not generally go farther 
than to affirm that certain colonies led by the priest-caste spread 
from Meroe into Egypt. That all this happened at the advice of 
the oracle of Amnion is proved by Herodotus, who says : " They 
undertook their expeditions at the time and to the place appointed 
by the god." The fact is too well known to render it necessary to 
be proved here that the foundation of colonies in the ancient world 
generally took place under the dictation of the oracles. This was 
so in Greece and in other countries as well as in Egypt, Ethiopia 
and Si wah. These oracles, were under the ministry or manage- 
ment of the priest-caste, doubtless sometimes in connection with 
the chief ruler of the nation ; it is reasonable, therefore, to con- 
clude that those settlements were usually in the first place deter- 
mined upon deliberately and then carried out for definite purposes. 
This is confirmed by the ordinary and monumental historv. 

One of those settlements, the nearest to Meroe on the north, that 
near Mount Berkal, is called after the present city, namely, Merawe 
At this place are found the remains of two temples, dedicated to 
Osiris and Amnion. The larger with an alley of Sphinxes, and 
all the sections of the great temples of Egypt, surpasses in extent, 



40 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

variety and perfection of finish, those in the parent State. The 
smaller called by Caillaud, a Typhonium, exhibits in its sanctuary 
Amnion with his whole train. But besides the name, another thing 
proves this place to have been a colony from Meroe ; I mean the 
pyramidal sepulchres, with nearly the very same number of pyra- 
mids as at Assur, though larger in size. Opposite also on the 
western bank of the Nile, near Nuri, is a group of pyramids, which 
are said to be the only ones found between the island of Meroe and 
Egypt. The reliefs on the temple relate to the worship of Amnion. 
On the Pylon a king or hero is offering to him a number of cap- 
tives ; in the interior decoration, gifts of fruit, cattle and other 
things. In the front building of the pyramids is represented 
Osiris, as king of the lower world, to whom gifts are likewise pre • 
sented. This place at a later period, probably in the time of the 
Ptolemies, became the capital, and was called Napata; and this in 
the time of Nero, when the Romans captured and destroyed it, was 
the residence of the successive queens, who dwelt here under the 
title of Candace. (Pliny, VI. 35, Mannert X. p. 220). 

Ammonium in the Libyan Desert, was, according to the testi- 
mony of Herodotus another of those colonies, which consisted not 
merely of a temple and oracle, but rather, as Meroe, formed a small 
State where the priest-caste was the ruling body, and chose a king 
from among themselves; and, according to his account, this colony 
was formed in common from Meroe and Thebes. This remarkable 
fact, not only proves the foundation of such colonies and the ob- 
jects for which they were intended, but also places beyond a doubt 
that a common interest was recognized as mutually existing between 
those religious institutions at Meroe" and Thebes. 

The princely Thebes itself was by far the most important settle- 
ment of this priest-caste ; it formed a sort of second metropolis or 
central point, whence they spread over the rest of Egypt and 
the Oases. The priestly tradition of Ethiopia and Egypt, asserted 
the worship of Amnion and Osiris, with all its institutions, feasts, 
processions and paraphernalia, to have been first settled at Meroe, 
the metropolis. Diodorus (I. p. 18), cites the character of the au- 
thorities whence he derives this information ; at one time as 
written, namely, the narrative of Agatharchides, in his work on the 
Red Sea, and the history of Artemidorus ; at others as oral, namely 
the assertions of the priests of the Thebaid; and of the embassa- 
dors from Meroe, whom he himself had there an opportunity of 
conversing with ; all these agree very well together. 



CIVILIZATION DESCENDED THE NILE. 41 

From the city of Meroe, therefore, according to the most ancient 
authorities did Osiris carry the civilization of which he is the sym- 
bol into Egypt. The worship of Amnion and his temple associates, 
the same sacerdotal polity, the same oracles confirmed it in anti- 
quity ; and we do not find the temples of Upper and the pyramids 
of Middle Egypt to be exponents of the same truth, with those de- 
signs wrought to the highest perfection of which the monuments 
of Meroe and Nubia furnished the simpler models. 

So far thus: But that Meroe was a colony of Thebes there is not 
the slightest historical proof. And what would be gained by such 
an opinion, even though the question should turn upon the rise of 
civilization in the Nile's valley? On what account would it be less 
likely to rise in Meroe than in the Thebaid? No doubt in both 
countries certain external causes promoted it; but that they were 
to be found as well, rather sooner in Meroe than in the Thebaid 
much might be adduced. 

The researches of investigators upon this subject lead to the gen- 
eral conclusion above set forth which is no small proof of the cor- 
rectness of our inferences. It is, therefore, here expedient to set 
forth the opinions to which Gaw and Champollion have led, more 
especially since we know they have proved themselves to be some 
of the most painstaking, laborious and accurate investigators in this 
field. 

"The observation of Gaw," it is said, " seems especially inter- 
esting, on account of the results to which it will lead ; we mean his 
remark that he hopes by his work to prove that the original models 
of Egyptian architecture may be found in the Nubian monuments, 
from the rudest rock excavation to the highest point of perfection ; 
and the specimens are met with in Nubia of the three different epochs 
of architecture. Of the first attempts, the excavations from the 
sides of rocks which were not till a later period ornamented with 
sculpture, the temples of Derar, Abousambal and Ghyrshe afford 
examples. From them Egyptian art proceeded to perfection, as 
we know from the monuments of Kalabshe, Dekar, etc. ; and again 
retrograded as is shown in the small buildings of Dandour," etc. 

" In the letters upon Champollion's latest discoveries it is said that 
history is extended and authenticated. Champollion reads the 
names of the mighty Egyptian Pharoahs upon the edifices which they 
erected, and arrives at certainty respecting the deeds of Tuthmosis, 
Amenophis II., Rameses Miamun, Rameses the Great or Seso^tris 
and others, which our modern skeptical critics would tear from the 



42 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

volume of authentic history and place among the fabulous. But a 
powerful voice is raised in their favor by the irrefragible evidence 
of the venerable reliefs, the innumerable inscriptions upon the 
pylons and long walls of Theban palaces. Nearly thirty royal dynas- 
ties enumerated of which from seventeen upwards uninterrupted 
monuments have been discovered. 

The most flourishing period of the Egyptian state, and its highest 
point of civilization Champollion places under the eighteenth dynasty, 
the fir?t of which dynasty expelled the shepherd race, or hyksos, from 
lower Egypt, under whose domination most if not all of Egypt had 
been for centuries. It was also the Pharaohs of this dynasty who so 
aggrandized Thebes ; who built the vast palace of Karnac, Luxor, 
Medinet Abon, Kornu and Memnonium. What a high pitch of civ- 
ilization ! What an astonishing era of art; two complete thousand 
years before the Augustan age of Rome ! The magnificent palace 
of Karnac records by its hieroglyphics that it was built during the 
eleven hundred years which elapsed from the time or Amenophis I. 
to that of Nekao II. Amenophis I. was the third, Amenophis II. 
( whom the Greeks call Memnon ) the eighth, and Amenophis III., the 
sixteenth of this glorious dynasty. But the most exalted hero 
among the Pharoahs was Rameses the Great or Sesostris, as he is 
called, by Herodotus, the first of the nineteenth dynasty." 

" But this advantage of the researches, so interesting in their 
consequences, is not merely confined to the antiquities of Egypt ; 
it stretches away to the south ; it opens up an historical view of 
countries, whose names have not yet been enrolled in the eternal 
tablets of history. In Nubia and Ethiopia stupendous, numerous 
and primeval monuments proclaim so loudly a civilization contem- 
porary, aye, earlier than that of Egypt, that it may be conjectured 
with the greatest confidence that the arts, sciences and religion de- 
scended from Nubia to the Lower country of Mizraim ; that civili- 
zation descended the Nile, built Memphis, and, finally, something 
later, wrested by colonization the Delta from the sea. From Meroe 
and Axum downwards with the Nile to the Mediterranean, there 
arose, as is testified' by Diodorus, cultivated and powerful States, 
which, though independent of each other, were connected by the 
same language, the same writing and the same religion." 

" Champollion, by comparing the manners and customs, the politi- 
cal institutions and physical organization of the Egyptians with 
those of other nations regards it as certain that they are a genuine 
African-descended race ; undoubtedly aboriginals of this quarter of 



INTERCOURSE WITH ARABIA FELIX. 43 

the world, as they resemble the western Asiatic nations, then- 
neighbors, in but a very few unimportant particulars. Their lan- 
guage contains as few analogies with the Sanscrit and Zend, the 
Chinese and the Arabic, as their writing with that of the rest of 
the known world. Everything tends to prove them a great, a self- 
cultivated and an exclusive family of nations, possessing the north- 
east of Africa, Nubia, the Oases and Egypt."* 

That the Ammonian oracles were principal stations of the cara- 
van trade may suggest the close connection which did really exist 
between religion and commerce, which was, doubtless, as natural 
to those countries as it is unnatural to our institutions. Though 
this priesthood was not of itself a trading people yet it seems by 
its establishments to have served as a guide and fosterer to the 
southern commercial intercourse. This a general survey of the 
commerce of those countries in the early ages would fully estab- 
lish. 

That an extensive commercial intercourse existed in early times 
between Ethiopia and Arabia Felix on the one side and the western 
coast of the peninsula of India and Ceylon on the other is a mat- 
ter which is pretty well established historically. Thus it may ap- 
pear that nature has so preordained the commerce of those nations 
by bestowing treasures on one portion which the others are desti- 
tute of and cannot well do without. India is, in natural produc- 
tions, one of the richest countries in the world, and, on that account, 
has always been esteemed a country of great importance in the 
world's commerce. Besides the textile fabrics peculiar to it and 
some which it may possess in common with a few other countries it 
possesses almost exclusively cinnamon and pepper, the two spices 
most in demand. In colder regions these may be dispensed with 
or used as articles of luxury ; but under the damp and burning cli- 
mate of those southern latitudes they are indispensably necessary 
as antidotes to putrefaction; and none of the nations in these 
regions can ever do without them after having once experienced 
their effects. 

Yeman, otherwise called Arabia Felix, though separated by sea 
from India, is yet by nature connected with it in an extraordinary 



* The foregoing extracts are taken from continental European reviews and magazines, 
written at the end of the first quarter of this nineteenth century. It is said that in later dis- 
coveries a whole archive has come to light in papyrus rolls, containing the names of the 
Pharoahs and annals of their reigns. An immense flood of light has been shed during this 
nineteenth century upon the history of that very ancient and interesting race more especially 
by the researches of Mr. Brugsch Bey. Doubtless much that is of interest will yet come to 
light concerning it. 



44 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

manner. One-half of the year — from Spring to Autumn — the 
wind sets in and wafts the vessels from Arabia to India; the other 
half — from Autumn to Spring — it as regularly carries them back 
from India to Arabia.* A sky almost always serene affords them 
the stars as guides, and spares them the trouble and danger of feel- 
ing along the coasts. Though Arabia produces no spices she amply 
makes up for the deficiency by other very valuable productions. If 
not exclusively, Arabia is above all others the native country of 
frankincense, myrrh and other aromatics and perfumes. If the 
purification of the air by sweet-smelling savors were not as neces- 
sary in these warm climates as spices are for the preservation of 
health, yet the value of these productions was greatly enhanced by 
religion. In the offerings to the gods in those semi-civilized nations 
frankincense was largely used. 

But eastern Africa not only divided the production of frankin- 
cense with Yeman, but produced a different commodity of great 
value, namely, gold, of which neither Yeman nor India could boast 
and without which their traffic must have been, even in those early 
times, much limited. The western coast of the Indian peninsula 
did not produce this metal, nor Arabia if at all but sparingly; but 
eastern Africa contained those districts abounding in gold, which 
are still numbered among the richest of the world. 

Indian spices, especially cinnamon, are brought to our view in the 
book of Exodus (ch. xxx : 23, 24), in which we can enumerate the 
quantity of spices to be used in compounding the holy oil of the 
sanctuary. The Phoenicians and Hebrews early carried on an exten- 
sive trade with Arabia Felix. The Hebrew poets and prophets cite 
the names of its various cities and harbors, and enumerate the 
treasures which were imported from them (Ezek. xxvii : 21-25 and 
the commentaries). The Greeks were also accustomed to proclaim 
the boundless riches contained in Yeman. " Its inhabitants, the 
Sabians," says Agatharchides, as quoted by Diodorous, "not only 
surpass the neighboring barbarians in wealth and magnificence, but 
all other nations whatsoever. In bringing and selling their wares 
they obtain among all nations the highest prices for the smallest 
quantities. As their distant situation protects them from all foreign 
plunderers, immense stores of precious metals have accumulated 
among them, especially in the capital. Curiously-wrought gold 
and silver drinking vessels in great variety ; couches, tripods 

* The former is a southwest, the latter a northeast wind. 



COMMERCE WITH YEMEN AND INDIA. 45 

with silver feet, and an incredible profusion of costly furniture in 
general. Porticos with large columns, partly gilt, with capitals 
ornamented with wrought silver figures. The roofs and doors are 
ornamented with gold fretwork, set with precious stones; besides 
which an extraordinary magnificence reigns in the decoration of 
their houses, in which they use silver and gold, and ivory and the 
most precious stones and all other things which men deem most 
valuable. These people from the earliest times have enjoyed their 
good fortune undisturbed ; being sufficiently remote from all those 
who strove to feed their avarice with the treasures of others." 

From the foregoing quotation it is plain that the inhabitants of 
this country had, by their commerce and country's native products, 
attained in the early ages to immense wealth ; and also, as indicated 
by their architecture and plastic arts, had made considerable pro- 
gress in civilization. According to Herodotus much of their wealth 
was derived from the merchandise of India for which their country 
was the great mart ; and his testimony is fully confirmed by that 
of Arrian in his " Periplus of the Red Sea," who has always had 
the reputation of having been a well informed writer. 

" Before merchants," he says, " sailed from India to Egypt and 
from Egypt to India, Arabia Felix was the staple both for Egyptian 
and Indian goods much as Alexandria is now for the commodities 
of Egypt and foreign merchandise." 

The explicit testimony here brought forward shows the commer- 
cial intercourse between Arabia and India to have been of high 
antiquity ; and everything connected with the subject indicates the 
Arabians to have been the navigators, the Indians nowhere appear- 
ing in that vocation. When, therefore, we are informed that 
Arabia Felix at that time was the market for Indian products we 
may with great probability conclude that those people at this time 
as well as afterwards possessed the carrying trade of the Indian 
ocean. Whether this was confined to coasting or whether advan- 
tage was taken of the monsoons in sailing across the sea direct 
must be left to conjecture ; hut we can scarcely suppose that the 
benefit of this wind should have remained unknown during a lapse 
of centuries to people dwelling in the regions whence it blew. If 
every other passage across this sea in the infancy of time may ex- 
cite suspicion nothing can be reasonably opposed or supposed to 
the shortness and facility of this. Moreover, a great part of the 
way along the Arabian coast might be navigated by the monsoons; 
and the great number of i-slands, with which the ocean is here dotted 



46 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

would serve as landmarks and harbors. It is, however, a remark- 
able circumstance that the direct transit from Yemen to India leads 
direct to that veiy district of all that vast country in which (as at 
Elephantin and Salsette) some of the most ancient and remarkable 
monuments that are to be found in India still exist. 

The intercourse between Yemen and Ethiopia has been subject to 
no real difficulties. They are neighboring countries separated only 
by a narrow strait. Just beyond this lies the Ethiopian land of frank, 
incense, known to Herodotus, and near to that the gold countries of 
eastern Africa mentioned before. That Egypt and the other coun- 
tries of northern Africa were well supplied with the home products 
of Ethiopia, as well as other countries just mentioned, is evident 
from so many circumstances that no doubt can remain upon the 
subject. 

As we go back into antiquity the closer seems to have been the 
connection between Egypt and Ethiopia. The Hebrew writers 
seldom mention the one without the other ; the people of both coun- 
tries are represented as commercial nations. When Isaiah (xlv: 
14) prophetically celebrates the victories of Cyrus their submission 
is spoken of as his most magnificent reward : " Thus saith the Lord, 
The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, 
men of stature, shall come over unto thee and they shall be thine." 
When Jeremiah (xlvi : 8-11) celebrates the great victory of Neb- 
uchadnezzar at Carchemish the Ethiopians are allied to the Egyp- 
tians. When Ezek. (xxx: 5) threatens the downfall of Egypt by 
Babylon the remotest parts of Ethiopia tremble at the denunciation. 
The records of Egypt exhibits the close intimacy in which they 
stood to each other. The primitive states of Egypt, as already 
seen, derived their origin from those remote regions ; Thebes and 
Meroe founded in common a colony in Libya, called Ammonium 
or Siwah; Ethiopian conquerors more than once invaded Egypt ; 
Egyptian kings in return made conquest of Ethiopia; the same wor- 
ship, the same customs and manners, the same mode of writing are 
found in both countries. And under Psammetichus, as shown 
above, the warrior class (called slaves by some, perhaps because, 
in effect, reduced to slavery by Psammetichus) retired into Ethio- 
pia and dwelt there. This general intimate connection might seem 
to indicate an understood permanent kinship, somewhat such as 
exists, taken in its broadest sense, among the Scottish clans. 

Egypt, also, as far back as history reaches was well stocked with 
the products of the Southern regions. Whence did she obtain the 



iEGYPT AND iETHlOPIA. 47 

drugs anil spices with which her dead were embalmed? Whence 
the incense that burned on her altars? Whence the immense quan- 
tity of cotton with which her people were clad and of which her 
own soil produced so little? 

Moreover, whence came into Egypt that early rumor of the gold 
districts of Ethiopia,- which Cambyses set out to discover and in the 
attempt lost half his army? Whence that profusion of ivory and 
ebony which the ancient artists of Greece and Phoenicia embellished ? 
(Herod, iii., 114.) "Ethiopia, the most distant region of the 
earth, brings forth gold in abundance, and ivory and ebony and va- 
rious other woods, and the tallest, handsomest and most long-lived 
of men." Whence that general and early spread of the name of 
Ethiopia, which glimmers in the traditional history of so many 
nations, and which is celebrated as well by the Hebrew poets as 
by the earliest Grecian bards? Whence all this, if the deserts 
which surrounded that people had formed an impassable barrier 
between them and the inhabitants of the northern districts? 

But why should tradition which has so long slumbered be now 
invoked? The remains of those majestic monuments, the series of 
which extend from Elephantin and Philae beyond the desert to 
Meroe, now speak for themselves. However short and monosyl- 
labic their language, they plainly enough evince that a close connec- 
tion must have existed between the peoples that erected them. 

The reader is, however, now in a position to judge both of the 
certainty and extent of the international commerce of those south- 
ern regions in those remote periods. It was a commercial inter- 
course between some of the richest and most productive regions of 
the earth; the gold countries of eastern Africa, the spice countries 
of India and the native land of frankincense, of precious stones and 
drugs in Southern Arabia. 

But this research presupposes anotner inquiry, namely, as to the 
relation in which commerce stood in those regions to religion. 

Commerce has always in the East been very closely connected 
with religion. All commercial intercourse requires peaceable and 
secure places in which it may be carried on. Commerce in the 
eastern countries is carried on in a very different way generally 
from that in which it is carried on in Europe and America. In 
these latter countries, every State, city and hamlet affords protec- 
tion to its people so that trade is carried on peaceabty and securely. 
Goods are transported speedily on freight trains and steamboats 
from point to point; and men travel, in. like manner, without ap- 



48 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

prehension of violence from unruly men. In the immense districts 
of the Eastern world the case is very different. The rich caravans 
have often to perform here journeys of hundreds of miles through 
nations of nomad robbers. The market is not where they might 
choose, but where the requirements of nature fixes it, in the midst 
or in the neighborhood of those roving hordes. What can be sup- 
posed to protect commerce, but the sanctity of the place? 

Moreover, a ready sale of merchandise requires a concourse of 
people, and where this has place is most usually in the vicinity of 
the national sanctuaries, where the whole nation is wont to congre- 
gate to celebrate their feasts. Here, where men give themselves 
up to good living the necessities of life, if not the luxuries, will be 
in plentiful supply and good demand, and here the merchants will 
net the best profits. Now, however, even the East affords a strik- 
ing example of the extent to which the maritime commerce has 
diminished that by land. Mecca has long been, through its holy 
sanctuary, the chief mart of the commerce of Arabia, and the great 
caravans of pilgrims, which journey thither from Asia and Africa 
are largely trading caravans. The fairs which depend upon their 
arrival are said to be the greatest in Asia. 

The rapid growth of a place in the East, when once it has obtained 
a sanctuary, that becomes the objective point of pilgrimages and 
by that means becomes a trading place almost surpasses credibility. 
Tenta, for example, a city of the Delta, is celebrated as containing 
the sepulchre of a Mohamedan saint, Seyd-Achmed. The venera- 
tion in which this is held brings an incredible number of pilgrims, 
who come at the season of the vernal equinox and summer solstice 
from Egypt, Abyssinia, Arabia and Darfour. The number is es- 
timated as averaging 150,000. These periodical assemblages besides 
the worship of the saint are devoted to commerce ; and each of them 
is the period of a celebrated fair, which lasts for many days and 
at which the produce of Upper Egvpt, the coast of Birbary, and 
of the eastern nations is exchanged for the cattle of the Delta and 
the linen there manufactured. (Memoires Sur l'Egypte, torn. Hi., 
p. 357.) 

It was the worship of Amnion and his kindred deities whose rites 
were propagated by the foundation of colonies of the same caste of 
priests along the course of the Nile from the vicinity of its sources 
till its divided streams lose themselves in the sea ; and the places 
celebrated for the worship of those deities were also famed as the 
great marts for the commerce of those regions. 



RELIGION AND COMMERCE. 49 

A consideration of this will easily determine the most ancient 
trading route from Ethiopia to Egypt and northern Africa. The 
situation and nature of the country will allow of no other, in the 
main, than a caravan trade ; for they cannot navigate on the river 
above a certain point, and in antiquity, single merchants could travel 
with as little safety as they can now without a convoy. For the 
caravan trade from northern Africa and the negro countries to Up- 
per Egypt, Thebes was the places of rendezvous. There are usually 
three principal caravans which go from inner Africa to Egypt ; one 
from Fczzau or Barbary, and one from Darfour and a third from 
Sennaar and Atbar, the ancient Meroe. From its situation Nubia 
is the natural and has, therefore, always been the great point of 
communication for the caravan trade between Ethiopia and the 
countries north and n. e. and n. w. of the Nubian desert. In aoino- 
from Egypt, Atbar is the first fertile spot which relieves the eye of 
the weary traveler over the dreary desert, the crossing of which is 
attended with so much toil and often with pain and danger. It is 
likewise the natural emporium for such productions of inner Africa 
as are wont to be transported to the north. It is the extreme point 
of the gold country towards Egypt; and possesses an easy commu- 
nication with the southern regions by means of the many navigable 
streams with which it is surrounded. Its moderate distance from 
Arabia Felix facilitates its intercourse with that wealthy country, 
which again rendered it, as long as it possessed the trade of Arabia 
and India, the natural market of Africa for Arabian and Indian 
goods. . 

But, though Sennaar or the country of Meroe, appears as a great 
commercial country, yet the territory about the. city of Meroe 
seems always to have been the principal locality of market. 

Bruce, in relating his adventures, says: " Shendy," now <ae 
nearest city to ancient Meroe, " was once a town of great resort. 
The caravans of Sennaar, Egypt, Suakin and Kordofan, were all 
accustomed to rendezvous here, especially after the Arabs had cut 
off the road by Dongola." The celebrated Maillet, who wrote at 
the beginning of the eighteenth century, informs us that at that 
time, the caravan from Sennaar arrived there every year, bringing 
gold dust, ebony, ivory, balsam, and black slaves, all wares equally 
known and valued in antiquity. It assembled at Gherri, a place 
lying a. few miles above Shendy and Meroe. The merchants from 
Sennaar and Goudar, the two chief cities of Abyssinia, and many 
other districts congregated here to begin their journey. The cara- 
4-b 



50 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

vans leave the Nile to the east and stretch across Libya, where 
after a seventeen days' journey, they enter a fertile valley, planted 
with palms ; then continuing their route, which leads over moun- 
tainous districts, they again reach the Nile at Monfelut, a city of 
Upper Egypt. 

The information brought by the French expedition confirms all 
this and discloses other important information. Shendy, we are 
told, is the place where the caravan road to the north of Egypt and 
to the east of the Arabian Gulf or Suakin, separate. Shendy, 
therefore, has long been a place of great trade, and it still remains 
the next city to Sennaar. Burkhardt, who remained a month at 
Shendy, gives in his work copious details concerning the trade of 
that town. "Commerce," he says, "is the very life of society 
in those countries. There is not a single family which is not con- 
nected more or less with some branch of traffic, either wholesale or 
retail and the people of Berber and Shendy appear to be a nation of 
traders in the strictest sense of the word." At but a few miles 
distance from Shendy, are the great salt works which supply all 
Abyssinia with this useful commodity. Strabo also mention this. 

Although the intercourse between Egypt, Arabia and Sennaar i3 
thus brisk that to the west with Soudan is represented by Burk- 
hardt as insignificant and unimportant. The commerce of interior 
Africa is carried on in two directions principally ; one follows the 
valley of the Nile from Egypt to Sennaar, the other is that of the 
Soudan, from the Joliba to the Mediterranean. Between these the 
empire of Bornou intervenes. These trading routes are .found to 
have been the same in antiquity as now, a matter as to wdiich all 
explorers are agreed. 

To the communication between northern and southern Africa the 
principal obstruction is the desert ; the countries beyond, in all 
directions, maintain, as we learn both from the ancient writers and 
the more modern reports of the British society, a constant inter- 
course. 

The usuai route of the caravan, in the present, runs to the east of 
the Nile, where that river makes its great bend towards the west, 
through the midst of the Nubian desert; the same that Bruce fol- 
lowed from Sennaar to Egypt and Burkhardt from Egypt to Sen- 
naar. From the beginning of the desert, on the northern boundary 
of Sennaar to Essouan on the Egyptian frontier the distance 
amounts to twenty days journey. Another route which almost 
constantly follows the course of the Nile, is, in consequence of 



COMMERCIAL ROUTES. 51 

its great westerly bend, much farther around, whether the first, 
that is, the shorter or more difficult route, was frequented iu an- 
tiquity cannot be determined from direct historical evidence, but 
as Eratosthenes and Artemidorus state the distance from Syene to 
the city of Meroe, the former at 625 and the latter at 600 miles, and 
this distance is undoubtedly reckoned according to this shortest 
route, we may safely conclude that it was known. According to 
Burkhardt it is the only route from Shendy to Eg} r pt and the one 
generally pursued by the caravans of Sennaar. Though not without 
its perils it did not appear so dangerous to him as the great Syrian 
desert. Springs are met with and these to some extent, naturally 
govern the direction of the road. A description of the longer way 
on the banks of the Nile, and as far as the nature of the stream will 
allow, upon that river, has already been given from Herodotus, 
whose forty days journey is explained by the context, that the 
course of the river was almost invariably followed. The succes- 
sion of inhabited places along the river renders it probable that in 
those times it was the common way, especially for those who 
dreaded the dangers of the desert. These places continue to 
Merawe, where the last cataracts begin and a very natural cause is 
found in this situation for the establishment of those settlements. 
Pliny was not only acquainted with them but describes the manner 
of the voyage up the Nile. " Syene," says he, " is the rendezvous 
of the Ethiopian vessels. The sailors fold them together and carry 
them on their shoulders as often as they come to the cataracts." 
These boats were probably made of hides ; but the same custom of 
carriage is still continued with the boats that are. " Notwithstand- 
ing the number of falls and cataracts," saysMaillet, " which render 
the navigation difficult they do not altogether impede it. The 
boats are brought as near as possible to the cataracts; the movable 
wares are then all taken out and a number of men take the boat, 
which is built very light for the purpose, upon their shoulders and 
carry it past the cataracts, while others transport the merchandise 
to the same place. The boat is then relaunched on the Nile, and 
so they go on from cataract to cataract, until they have passed them 
all." But, independently of Herodotus' direct statement that in 
order to avoid the cataracts people would rather go a journey of 
about forty days, the nature of the journey itself shows that the 
usual caravan route then could not have been that through the 
middle of the desert. The number of settlements show that this 
route lay through the inhabited' district near to the river, which 



52 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

doubtless rendered it possible for single voyageurs to go it with- 
out danger. 

In no historian do we find indicated the route which led in an- 
cient times from Meroe to the Arabian Gulf and Yemen ; neverthe- 
less traces are still extant, of the intercourse of these nations, 
which time has not been able to obliterate. Just in the midst of the 
way are found the ruins of Axum, and, at its end, on the coast 
opposite Arabia Felix, the remains of Adule and Azab. 

If nothing else, the antiquity of Axum entitles it to a particular 
notice. So far as I have discovered its name is not mentioned by 
any historian previous to the first century of our era. It is first 
mentioned by Arian, in his Periplus of the Red Sea, who probably 
flourished under Nero, and afterwards by Ptolemy. Arian calls it a 
metropolis at about seven or eight days journey from the Red Sea, 
and at that time the chief emporium for the ivory trade. In the 
sixth century when Justinian formed an alliance with Ethiopia 
Axum was highly celebrated. At this time, at least, it was the 
residence of the Ethiopian monarchs, hence the capital of Ethiopia: 
Cosmus, Nonnosus, Procopius and others have much to say about it. 

But, notwithstanding the silence of the early writers, the ruins 
of Axum are still there to attest its great antiquity. The first ac- 
count we have of these remarkable monuments was given by the 
Portuguese, Alvarez and Tellez, the first in his voyage in and the 
second in his history of Ethiopia. To this succeeded the narrative 
of Bruce which is indeed quite an extended history of that country 
under the name of Abyssinia. But Bruce's account has been, to 
some extent, sharply criticised by Salt, a later traveler. 

The remains at Axum belong to different ages; partly to a very 
high antiquity ; partly to the first centuries of the Christian era ; 
and partly to a still later period ; while Alvarez and Tellez had not 
sufficient knowledge to distinguish these critically, still their infor- 
mation is very remarkable, showing as it does, that in their time 
many monuments existed which do not now appear. Besides the 
obelisks, sometimes standing, and sometimes fallen down, which 
were in part covered with inscriptions, Alvarez mentions many 
pedestals and statues of lions jetting out water. Tellez not only 
speaks of obelisks and pyramids, whose resemblance to the Egyp- 
tian cannot be mistaken, but also saw, as he relates, an inscription 
in Greek and Latin letters, most likely the same that Salt has pub- 
lished. Bruce's words are as follows: — 

" Ou the 18th of January (1770), we came into the plain 



ANTIQUITIES OF ABYSSINIA. 53 

wherein stood Axum, once the capital of Abyssinia, at least as it is 
supposed. For my part I believe it to have been the magnificent 
metropolis of the trading people or Troglodyte Ethiopians, for the 
reason I have already given, as the Abyssinians never built any 
city, nor do the ruins of any exist at this day in the whole country. 
But the black or Troglodyte part of it have in many places build- 
ings of great strength, especially at Az;ib, worthy the magnificence 
and riches of a state which was from the earliest ages the emporium 
of the Indian and African trade." 

The ruius of Axum are very extensive, but entirely consist of 
public buildings. In one square which is supposed to have been 
the center of the town, there are forty obelisks, none of which have 
any hieroglyphics upon them. They are all of one piece of granite 
and on the top of that which is standing, there is a patera, exceed- 
ingly well carved in the Greek taste." 

We proceeded southwards by a road cut in a mountain of red 
marble, having on the left a parapet-wall about five feet high, solid 
and of the same materials. At equal distances there are hewn in 
this wall solid pedestals, upon the tops of which we see the marks 
where stood the colossal statues of Sirius, the Latrator Auubis or 
Dog-star. One hundred and thirty-three of those pedestals, with 
the marks of the statues I just mentioned, are still in their places ; 
but only two figures of the dog remained when I was there, much 
mutilated, but a taste easily distinguished to be Egyptian." 

There are likewise pedestals wherever the figure of the Sphinx 
have been placed. Two magnificent flights of steps, several hun- 
dred feet long, all of granite, exceedingly well fashioned and still 
in their places, are the only remains of a magnificent temple." 
Thus far Bruce. 

The remains of ancient art found by Salt are two groups of 
obelisks, a considerable distance apart, each composed of fourteen 
or fifteen pieces ; only one of each group being now standing. The 
largest formed of one piece of granite is eighteen feet high and 
some of those thrown down are still more. The smaller one is 
twenty feet. Many of them are ornamented with sculptures, which 
seem, however, rather embellishments than hieroglyphics, and some 
are plain. The proportions and workmanship are admirable. The 
sculptures represent architectural ornaments somewhat similar to 
those in the Indian rock-pagodas, a door below and apertures or 
windows above. The priests stated the original number of the 
obelisks to have been forty-five. Several altars and pedestals lay 



54 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

scattered around, fallen from their former places; the two magnifi- 
cent flights of steps are included in the plan of Mr. Salt as well 
as two others hewn in the rock. The Greek inscription he has 
transcribed is said to belong to the fourth century, A. D. 

The ancient monuments of Ax um were laid waste by the violence 
of fanaticism, according to the ecclesiastics of the place by a queen 
of Amhara, named Gadit, about anno 1070 A. D. ; or, according 
to an inscription found there by a conqueror named Abun David, 
perhaps by both. As Axum was for more than eleven centuries the 
seat of a Christian Church (the present one was built in 1657) many 
of the old materials were probably used in the new buildings, and 
only such remains as could not readily be removed or put to use. 
This, however, is sufficient to remove any doubt that might exist as 
to the high antiquity of Axum. Though the plan of the principal 
building can no longer be accurately laid down, yet Mr. Salt ex- 
pressly remarks that all the antiquities in the vicinity of the new 
church now form one group and formerly belonged to one great 
fabric. But there is perceived in the separate members as well as 
in the aggregate a most striking resemblance to the Egyptian mon- 
uments. The rows of obelisks which here form an avenue ; the 
pedestals which at one time bore statues, perhaps of a gigantic 
size ; and the vast magnitude of the whole are perceived to exhibit 
the same architecture, the same art in the arrangement of the great 
masses of stone, and the same taste as the ruins of Thebes, of Ele- 
phantes and Meroe, with which Bruce, in one place compares them. 
Remarkable differences, it is seen occur; for it has been generally 
observed no traces of obelisks appear in Nubia and Meroe, while 
here we find them in groups ; and while, on the contrary, the 
Egyptian obelisks are covered with hieroglyphics none such appear 
on those at Axum, which are merely ornamented. 

These circumstances have left Mannert (Geography of the Greeks 
and Romans, part X., 166), to conjecture that Axum was origin- 
ally one of the cities founded by the immigrant warrior Caste from 
Egypt. One of the cities founded by them he considers to be 
identical with Esar, and there is, on the whole, much which seems 
to favor his opinion. It lay within the territory possessed by them, 
which extended eastwardly towards the Arabian Gulf ; and if this 
opinion should be correct it might bethought to reasonably accouut 
for the absence of hieroglyphics, as there was among them no 
priestly caste. This would show Axum to mount up at least to the 
early part of the seventh century B. C. ; and it is known from the 



COMMERCIAL ROUTES. 55 

Periplus of Arrian to have been, some centuries later, a principal 
mart for the interior trade ; that it was so even earlier is a proba- 
ble conjecture. 

The end of this trade route was, according to Bruce, Azab, at 
the entrance of the Arabian Gulf, whence the passage to Arabia 
Felix requires under sail but a few hours. Ruins, similar to those 
described in the passage above cited by Bruce, are still said to 
point out the site of this remarkable place, which was at one time 
the great emporium of Indian and Arabian products for the vast 
regions of Africa. It is, however, recognized as very desirable 
that the African coast of the Arabian Gulf, about the straits of 
Babelmandel should be more accurately explored. If even what 
Bruce has said with respect to Azab (Saba) be set aside, it might 
still bo considered very astonishing, if the long intercourse between 
Arabia and Africa had not produced some large settlement, either 
where Azab is placed upon our charts or without the straits, per- 
haps, as from that part a connection with Aden would be so much 
easier. 

Adule, another ancient fort on the Arabian Gulf, lay at a short 
distance from the present Arkeeko, 15° N. Lat. "Adule," says 
Pliny, " according to an ancient writer, is the greatest emporium 
of the. Troglodytae and Ethiopians. They bring here ivory, rhine- 
oceros-horn, hippopotamus hides, tortoise shells, and slaves. 
Egyptian bondsmen, who ran away from their masters, founded 
it." Adule is decided to have been an Egyptian colony, and must 
not this be a version of the immigration of the warrior class in the 
time of Psammetiehus, whom the then ruling power and its sup- 
porters would be most likely, through contempt or policy, to have 
designated slaves? I have not noticed that any modern explorer 
has reached Adule ; Stuart, whom Salt sent there, having been in- 
tercepted, was obliged to return. The Arabians are, however, 
uniform in their assertion that the ruins of a city, which they call 
Zulla, exist there, and a column brought thence to Arkeeko, gives 
evidence of the Egyptian style. The successful adventurer, who 
reaches this place, will perhaps, find there, still in position, the cele- 
brated monument of Adule, for the preservation of whose inscrip- 
tion we are indebted to Cosmas, and which records the victories of 
Ptolemy III., over the Ethiopians and Sasu. It is barely possible 
that this has been accomplished by some modern explorer without 
having come to my knowledge. 

It has been frequently mentioned by Bruce, as an important cir- 



56 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

cumstance, that in all Abyssinia, there are only three places, 
namely, Azab, Axum, and Meroe (to which we may now add 
Adule), where ruins of those great establishments are found, whose 
form as well as high antiquity shows them to have sprung from a 
common origin. All these are ruins of large public edifices ; every 
thing about them is colossal ; while of private habitations there ia 
not the slightest trace. These, doubtless, from their being less 
durable, have long ago disintegrated into dust, though it must 
always remain doubtful, whether and how far we ought to extend 
our notion of cities to any of those places. The greater part of the 
the peoples of Ethiopia were nomads, as they are in the present 
day, and, as from the nature of their country, they must always 
remain. Is it not more likely that those places adorned with tem- 
ples and obelisks, were merely extensive market places, where 
caravans from remote regions of the world, gathered together, and 
to which distant nations, under the protection of the deities who 
inhabited those temples, conveyed the products of their countries 
in order to barter them for others. This view seems, at least, 
most agreeable to the physical geography of Ethiopia, and most in 
accord with the august magnificence of those monuments, which we 
do not find were surrounded by such assemblage of private houses 
as would create in our mind the idea of city. In those distant 
countries everything sprung from different causes, and, therefore, 
must have been different in the general idea from what they are in 
the regions of Europe and America. 

Following I give a resume of the observations of G. A. Hoskins in 
his work, " Travels into Ethiopia." This is the most extensive work 
which up to his time (1835) was published upon ancient Ethiopia and 
especially upon Meroe, which was the great objective point of the 
author's journey and for which he prepared himself not only by a 
long abode in Greece and Italy in studying the monuments of those 
countries, but also in Egypt. 

He set out from Thebes in Upper Egypt, Feb. 1st, 1833, pene- 
trated as far as the ancient city of Meroe and arrived, on his return, 
at Wady Haifa, the second cataract of the Nile, on the 16th June 
of the same year, when his account closes, so that his journey into 
Ethiopia lasted four months and a half. His retinue consisted of 
twelve persons whom he hired to accompany him, among whom 
was an expert Italian painter, named Baldoni, who furnished the 
drawings by which the descriptions are illustrated. The work is 
cast in the form of a journal, to which are added four chapters on 



OBSERVATIONS OF G. A. HOSKINS. 57 

the history and affairs of ancient Meroe. It will be sufficient for 
our purpose to select such part of this author's work as may serve 
to extend our knowledge concerning those remote regions, without 
necessarily following him step by step. 

Having started south from Philae, with his convoy of eleven 
camels, which he had obtained from the Ababdes, he at first fol- 
lowed the course of the river, but left it to cross the Nubian desert 
to Korosko. The party only in one place met with water, which 
was salt; the skeletons of famished travelers and camels were lying 
in heaps along the way. Near Macharif, the present capital of 
^ubia, they again reached the Nile and thence-forward continued 
their journey along this river ; and thus after passing the conflux of 
the Astaboras and the Nile they arrived on the 4th of March at 
Meroe, the ancient capital of Ethiopia. Of this city he found only 
the Necropolis with its pyramids remaining. Of these the descrip- 
tions and drawings given in his work are deemed much more com- 
plete and accurate than those given byCaillaud. 

" Never," says this explorer, " were my feelings more ardently 
excited than in approaching, after so tedious a journey, to this mag- 
nificent Necropolis. The appearance of the pyramids in the dis- 
tance announced their importance; but I was gratified beyond my 
most sanguine expectations when I found myself in the midst of 
them. The pyramids of Ghizeh are magnificent, but for pictur- 
esque effect and elegance of architectural design, I infinitely prefer 
those of Meroe. I expected to find few such remains here and 
certainly nothing so imposing, so interesting as those sepulchres, 
doubtless of the kings and queens of Ethiopia. I stood for a while 
lost in admiration. From every point of view I saw magnificent 
groups, pyramid rising behind pyramid, while the dilapidated state 
of many did not render them the less beautiful as works of art. I 
easily restored them in my imagination and these effects of the 
ravages of time carried back my thoughts to distant ages." 

The author first gives the positions of the single pyramids in a 
general plan, in which we notice twenty-one in greater or less pres- 
ervation as well as the traces of several others. These, however, 
are only the pyramids of the principal group, which the author first 
reached on the west side of the river. But he mentions three 
groups in which eighty pyramids may be counted. The principal 
group is situated on a hill two miles and a half from the river, and 
of some of these he gives drawings in his work with their dimen- 
sions. The largest is sixty feet high and the same in diameter at 



58 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the base. Most of them may be ascended by steps. One has a 
window but it is thought to have been only for ornament and not 
for the purpose of admitting light. All have a portico with an en- 
trance, which always faces westward. The principal group contains 
thirty-one pyramids and the plan of twenty-three of them may be 
distinctly traced. Another group contains thirteen ; two out of 
three other groups consist each of two ; a third of six. At the 
distance of 6500 feet from the chief group towards the west may be 
discerned the remains of twenty-six pyramids, all of them in ruins. 
The porticos generally contain a room, six to twelve feet in length 
and as many in breadth, the facades of which are much ornamented. 
" We may," says the author, " clearly recognize in them the origin 
of the Egyptian propylons." At the end of most of those porticos, 
opposite to the entrance, there is the representation of a monolithic 
temple, with sculptures, which are, however, much defaced. It is 
evident that attempts have been made either from curiosity or 
rapacity, to break open several of those temples. No where is 
there the slightest vestige of their having contained corridors. The 
entrance of one of those porticos was arched, whence the author 
infers that the Egyptians were acquainted with the arch, which he 
considers to have originated in Ethiopia. But, says one, the exam- 
ple of a single one which may possibly have been built at a later 
period, is not deemed conclusive, however the case may have been 
as to it. In relation to this we may fairly consider that even had 
the arch been known in Egypt, it could not have been introduced 
into the temples, where everything was done in conformity to the 
strict rules laid down by the priests from which no deviation was 
permitted. 

The walls of the porticos are adorned with sculptures of 
which fac-similes are given in the work. They consist of proces- 
sions with libations and sacrifices in honor of a goddess. The prin- 
cipal figure, which is in a sitting posture, is covered with a long, 
close robe, which is not usual with Egyptian figures. The whole 
figure is unlike the Egyptians. It is also distinguished by marked 
corpulency, which is considered one of the principal beauties in the 
East. Two other sheets contain a representation of another pro- 
cession of the same kind, in which, however, it is impossible to de- 
termine the sex of the principal figure or to distinguish whether it 
was a king or a queen. From the work of Caillaud we know there 
were also representations of military subjects, such as the execution 
of prisoners, but none of these are here repeated. Whenever dis- 



OBSERVATIONS OF G. A. HOSKINS. 59 

crepancies are found between the drawings given here and those of 
Caillaud the author vouches for the correctness of M. Baldoni's and 
of his own, the latter of which were executed partly with the assist- 
ance of the camera lucida. These pyramids are of sandstone; the 
quarries from which this stone was derived being still pointed out 
in the mountains. Time and a tropical sun have given them a dark- 
brown tinge. But the climate is, on the whole, favorable to the 
preservation of those monuments ; and hence the dilapidated condi- 
tion of most of them is the most convincing proof of their great 
age. 

The author found no remains of the ancient city of Meroe, ex- 
cepting some masonry and some of the bricks of which, according to 
Strabo, the city was built. As at Memphis there is scarcely a ves- 
tige of a temple or palace ; the city of the dead alone remains. 
Gazelles now fearlessly pasture upon the plain which surrounds it ; 
in wolves aud hyenas the neighboring hills abound. But the name 
Meroe still lives in that of a village not far distant. 

From thence the author went to Shendy, a town which now con- 
tains only 3,000 to 3,500 inhabitants, and from six to seven hundred 
houses. The colored portraits of the inhabitants of both sexes 
show that their complexion was brown and not black. Before their 
subjection to the pasha of Egypt, Shendy, Dongolah and other towns 
had their own chiefs (meleks contr, meks), who were more or less 
subject to the great melek of Sennaar. These were so many petty 
tyrants who with their families constituted the aristocracy of the 
country. 

From Shendy the author went on the 9th of March through the 
desert to the ruins of Mezura or Wady Owataib, which are also 
known from Caillaud, and of which drawings are given in his work ; 
these he reached on the next day. 

"I was," says he, " surprised to find such extensive remains of 
antiquity in such a situation, as it were in the interior of the desert. 
They consist of a building containing temples, courts, corridors, 
etc., which were not only destined for religious but also for civil and 
domestic purposes, and, upon the whole, measured 28,554 feet in 
circumference. In the center there is a small temple, forty seveu 
feet long and forty wide, which is evidently the principal temple. 
It is surrounded by a colonnade which on the north side is double. 
The interior contains four columns. The temple is approached by 
a long corridor. At each side of the gate to which the corridor 
leads there is a colossal image hewn in the wall ; but it i3 mutilated, 



60 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the head and arms being wanting. The style of the one is tolerably 
good, that of the other far inferior. An accurate notion of the 
buildings which surround the temple cannot be conveyed by descrip- 
tion ; they must be referred to in the plan." 

This is the building in which a certain able reviewer in his 
researches concerning Meroe etc., thought he recognized the old 
temple of the oracle of Amnion. He considered himself borne 
out in this assumption, partly by its situation in the desert, as 
according to the statement of Diodorus, and partly by the enigma- 
tic plan of the building itself; while the four colums in the interior 
immediately suggests to him the idea that they were destined to 
support the sacred ship, by means of which, as is well known, the 
oracles of Ammon were delivered, and a representation whereof 
may be seen on many of his temples in Thebes. This, however, 
was limited to the central temple, as it was clear that the surround- 
ing buildings were not erected all at once but gradually as occasion 
required, and especially as residences for the priests. But the 
author who elsewhere generally coincides with the opinions of the 
reviewer mentioned here objects that the temple would have had 
hierogij'phics upon it. He cannot form any more definite coujec- 
ture as to its purpose than that the whole was perhaps a pleasure- 
castle of the kings, or that it may have served as an hospital ; but 
in the opinion of the reviewer there is no doubt whatever that its 
destination was of a religious nature, as the principal building was 
a temple, the smallness of which will not create surprise when it is 
considered that it was intended for the reception of the ship of 
the oracle ; and as to the absence of hieroglyphics, that the six col- 
umns of the portico, according to Caillaud certainly appear to have 
been furnished with them. 

The above remark that the whole building only arose gradually 
may serve to explain the traces of Grecian architecture, as we know 
from Diodorus that the temple was still standing in the Ptolomaic 
age in which King Ergamenes overthrew the priestly aristocracy. 

From this place the author went to the ruins of the temple of 
Abou Naga of which nothing more than the area is given and a 
drawing representing two pillars, which are also without hieroglyphs. 
From their style the author considers these to be the oldest monu- 
ments of ancient Meroe; "for," he observes, "the absence of 
hieroglyphics is either a proof of the highest or of a later 
antiquity." Hence he had intended to go to the ruins of Mezauret 
eleven miles distant, the tirst accounts of which we have in Cail- 



GIBEL EL BIRKEL AND MERAWE. 61 

laud ; but this design he was obliged to relinquish. Even at the 
ruins of Naga they had been disturbed by lions, whose vicinity was 
announced by their traces and their roar ; it was only by kindlinc 
fires at night that they effected to scare them away. The danger 
to be apprehended by those unbidden guests, in case they penetrated 
farther into the desert, so wrought upon the imaginations of his 
companions, that they refused to accompany him and thus he found 
himself obliged to return. 

On the 14th of March the author set out from Shendy on his 
return trip, in which he followed another route, namely, to the west 
of the Nile, through the desert Bajoudah ; his description of this 
ronte is a valuable addition to our geographical knowledge. This 
desert is not destitute of trees and springs ; the sand is not very 
deep; and in many places there was a pleasing prospect. The im- 
mediate objective point of his journey was Gibel el Birkel with its 
monuments, and then the place called Meraweh, iu which, from its 
name and history, we recognize a colony from ancient Meroe. 
They reached Gibel el Birkel on March 22d. The plan and draw- 
ings he gives of this place differ in many respects from those of 
Caillaud ; but he assures us that he took great pains to insure the 
greatest possible exactness, iu which, doubtless, this author's work 
is entitled to preference as he had taken with him for the work a 
well skilled artist. 

The monments here consist of two classes, temples and pyra- 
mids. The temples stand at the foot of the isolated hill, 350 feet 
in height. Two of them are entirely in ruins consequent upon the 
sliding of a mountain ; two are excavated in the rock ; the others, 
eight in number, the remains of which still appear, are above 
ground. They are built in the Egyptian- style, and upon them are 
inscribed the names of the Pharaohs of the Ethiopic-Egyptian 
dynasty-whose reigns fell between 800 and 700 B. C, to which 
it is supposed the erection of these monuments may be referred. 
The author has not only given an exact architectural description of 
them, with ground plans and drawings, but also of the decoration 
on the walls, representing processions and military scenes, which 
are known also from Caillaud, but are here drawn more minutely. 

The Necropolis, consisting of pyramids, is divided into two parts ; 
the one on the west side of the river by Gibel el Birkel, the other 
on the east side near Nuri. They are in better preservation than 
are those of ancient Meroe and also have porticos; the highest near 
Nuri being of eighty-eight feet. They are also of sandstone and 



62 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

reliefs around and in the porticos represent religious processions 
and military subjects. The spectacle of all these ruins produced 
on the author a grand impression. " I felt," says he, " that I was 
indubitably in the vicinity of a once rich and flourishing country." 
The pyramids may be ascended with some difficulty, their height in 
most cases being between thirty and sixty feet. There are about 
fourteen pyramids at Gibel el Birkel ; about thirty-five at Nuri on 
the opposite side of the river, and, the latter being the most dilap- 
idated, the author reckons them among the most ancient monu- 
ments. The subjects described on the entablatures leaves no doubt 
that they were mausolea of kings and queens. 

On the 3rd of April the author embarked at Meroe for his re- 
turn, descended the Nile and on the 10th arrived at Dongolah, of 
which place he gives much information concerning the inhabitants, 
their manners, customs, etc. He then continued his journey down 
the river to the Island of Argo, which he visited in order to see and 
describe its antiquities. These consist of two prostrate colossal 
statues of grey granite: the faces are Egyptian, but the sculpture 
Ethiopian. They appear never to have been entirely finished. 
The author having; been here informed that a revolt had broken out 
in the province of Mahas, which he must needs pass through, as he 
thus found it impossible to continue his journey in this direction he 
was compelled to return to Dongola ; and it was not till after the sup- 
pression of the insurrection that he thought safe to undertake his 
journey, which he finally accomplished, partly upon the Nile itself, 
chiefly along its left bank. As already mentioned his diary ends 
with his arrival at the second cataract or Wady Haifa. 

Four more chapters follow : the first two on the history of Meroe, 
the next on its trade and the last two on its art. The history of 
Meroe' is gathered from those passages of ancient history, sacred 
and profane which mention that city; with the assistance, however, 
in this case of the inscriptions in the temples (as the names and 
titles of the Pharaohs in the hieroglyphic writings which the author 
saw and copied are uniformly added), at the same time especial 
use being made of the accounts of Rossellini of whose work the 
author has a very high opinion. Here, also, the author opens up a 
wide field for investigation and discussion upon various points, as 
for example, when he identifies the Sethos of Herodotus with Tir- 
hako and finds the names of the three Ethiopic-Egyptian dynasts 
namely, Sabacus, Seuechus and Tirhako inscribed upon a temple 
at Gibel el Birkel. It appears more than probable that he, sus 



RACES KNOWN TO THE JEGTPTIAXS. 



pecting those inscriptions meant these thi-ee names, arbitrarily gave 
them a meaning which their originals did not bear. The author is 
of the opinion that Meroe was the parent country of the worship 
of Amnion as well as of the general civilization of the valley of the 
Nile and largely of the surrounding countries of Africa in which 
opinion he concurs with the reviewer. 

Particularly worthy of notice are the plates with which this work 
is embellished and which are in various ways interesting and in- 
structive. This is especially so of the colored portraits of the races 
of those regions, whose complexions may be here distinctly recog- 
nized. The vignettes generally represent landscapes, and are 
largely executed with the camera lucida. The larger sheets which 
exhibit drawings of the monuments give partly the general plans, 
partly the ruins in their present and some of them in their former 




THE NUBIAN'. THE NEGRO. THE ASSYRIAN. THE PELASGIAN. THE ARAB. 

The five races of men known to the Ancient Egyptians. 

state, as far as this can still be recognized. At the end of the 
work there is a drawing upon four large sheets, representing a 
grand procession in one of the royal sepulchres of Thebes (ace to 
the author, Tuthmosis III, 1500 B. C.) on which are delineated the 
three races, namely, the red or brown, the black and the white ; 
besides which it exhibits various species of animals, even the giraffe 
and the elephant, and many varieties of monkeys ; other objects 



64 CREATOR AXD COSMOS. 

pertaining to trade are also represented, concerning which the 
author has given a commentary. The large map annexed compre- 
hends the whole region of the Nile with it tributaries, from 15° 30' 
N. Lat. to its deboucheure. 

As to Egyptian History. 

The history of Egypt, arranged according to the thirty-one 
dynasties of Manetho, is divided, as regards its sources, into two 
periods, one of these comprising the first seventeen dj'nasties, the 
other the eighteenth to the thirtj'-first. It is only of this latter 
period that any monuments remain. The history of the Egyptian 
Empire of Menes begins with the 18th dynasty. This, with the two 
dynasties following, embraces the real history of all that apparently 
preceded. The 18th dynasty is that which is connected with the ques- 
tion of the Shepherd kings* who were called by the Egyptian name of 
Hyksos, Hykshasu or Shasu. This is the Greek name Xoites, which 
is Chat or Chit (in Chitim) with the plural ending u. These, 
as the authorities say, dominated, for a longer or a shorter 
time, all Egypt. If they were a people descended from Menes, 
as has occurred to me might have been the case, then it would 
indicate Menes, whoever he was, to have been of a race of 
Shepherds, whether African or Asiatic. It has been sup- 
posed that those people with beards and long garments appear- 
ing on the monuments with their flocks are referable to the 
Shepherds; but this is likely a mistake; for, doubtless, these 
latter refer to people in altogether different circumstances 
than the Egyptian Shepherds. The Arabs are largely Shep- 
herds and an expression of Josephus in speaking of them 



* "They have been variously pronounced to be Assyrians, Scythians, Cushites or Ethiopians 
of Asia, Phoenicians or Arabians. Manetho calls them Phoenicians and shows them not to 
have been from Assyria, when he says they took precautions against ■ the increasing power of 
the Assyrians;' and the character of shepherds accords far better with that of the people of 
Arabia. Indeed, the name Ilykshos may be translated shepherd or Arab kings, Hyk being the 
common title king or ruler, given even to the Pharaohs on the monuments, and Shos signify- 
ing shepherd or answering to Shasu, Arabs. How any of the Arabians had sufficient power to 
invade and obtain a footing in Egypt it is difficult to explain ; but it is well known that a people 
from Arabia called Phoenicians or the red race, who' were originally settled on the Persian 
Gulf, invaded Syria and took possession of the coast; and similar successes may have after- 
wards attended their invasion of Egypt, especially if aided by the alliance of some of its 
princes. The statement of Amos (ix:7) that the Philistines of Syria came from Caphtor, which 
was a name applied to Egypt, may relate to the subsequent passage of another body of 
Phoenicians into Syria after their expulsion from Egypt." Kawlinson's Hist. Herod. App. Vol. II, 
p. 351. 

That the Hikshasu were, definitively, Phoenicians has been the opinion of investigators who 
have had the greatest opportunities of going thoroughly into the subject and of knowing how 
it was in reality. 



THE HTKSHASU OR SHEPHERD KINGS. 65 

is as follow? : "Some say that they are Arabs." Manetho and 
Syncellus call them Phoenicians, a denomination which was to some 
extent applied to the neighboring tribes of Syria and Arabia. 
M. Rossellini, however, one of the most distinguished investigators 
into the Egyptian and Ethiopian antiquities, takes them for Scyth- 
ians. He founds his assertion etymologically upon their generic 
name according to him, Scios, which he concludes to be the same as 
Scythes. In this he may have followed a correct thought, for 
Gaelic history evidently indicates the Phoenicians or Edomites to 
have descended from the Scythians ; and their Nial, the son of 
Phoenius (i.e., the Phoenician race), might represent the race of 
those Scythians called, in the valley of the Nile, Scios or Hyksos. 
These appear to have the held the government of Egypt for a good 
number of centuries ; long enough, indeed, for them to have become 
fairly Africanized, and for their race in the valley to have received 
the name of Nile (Nial). On the eastern borders of the Red Sea 
and the Persian Gulf these people had received the name of Phoe- 
nicians, which is the same as Edomites, redish men (Phoenix, pur- 
ple ; the Red Sea). But would the invasion and occupation of 
Egypt during. that long course of ages by these Hyksos, or shep- 
herd kings, have been merely a variety of the real historic Biblical 
representation of the Israelites going down into Egypt and living 
there for, according to the Bible, an indefinite period, the life of 
shepherds? Manetho, the Egyptian priest-historian, in the time of 
the Ptolemies, says that the shepherd race when expelled by Tuth- 
mosis in 1542 B. C, went up and built the city, Jerusalem. Al- 
though from that time to the era of Solomon, say 1000 B. C, the 
history of the Israelites be obscure, you, nevertheless, see how the 
going down of the Israelites into Egypt, and their coming up thence, 
in due time, and founding Jerusalem and occupying Palestine (i.e., 
the land of the Palai or shepherds), may be understood of the 
nation of the Israelites and so as real and bona fide history.* 

If we take a review of what we have thus far advanced, we find 
we can deduce from it the following conclusions : — 

1st. It appears that in the early ages a commercial intercourse 
existed between the countries of southern Asia and Africa, between 



* But in regard to the whole question of the Israelites in Egypt Mr. Brugsch Bey says: 
"The inscriptions do not mention one syllable about the Israelites. We must suppose that the 
captives were included in the general name of foreigners of whom the documents make such 
frequent mention. The hope, however, is not completely excluded that some hidden papyrus 
may still give us information about them as unexpected as it would be welcome." Egypt un- 
der the Pharaohs, vol. II., p. 99. And at page 210 of the same volume, he says : "As to the men- 
tion of the Fenekhe (Phoenicians), I have a presentiment that we shall one day discover the 
evidence of their most intimate relationship with the Jews." 
5— b 



66 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

India and Arabia, Ethiopia, Libya and Egypt, which was founded 
upon their mutual necessities and was instrumental in the civiliza- 
tion of those peoples. 

2nd. The principal seat for Africa of this international inter- 
course was Meroe, and the principal route is still pointed out by a 
chain of ruins, extending from the shores of the Indian Ocean to the 
Mediterranean. Adule, Azab, or Saba, and Axum are links in this 
chain between Arabia Felix and Meroe ; Thebes and Ammonium 
between Meroe, Egypt and Carthage. 

3rd. The chief places of this trade were likewise establishments 
of the priest-caste, who, as a dominant race, had their principal 
seat at Meroe, whence they sent out colonies, which in their turn 
founded other colonies, became the founders of States and likewise 
the builders of cities and temples. 

No doubt then can exist concerning the close connection here be- 
tween commerce and religion, nor regarding the manner in which 
many States became formed in the interior of Africa, in very an- 
cient times. But though this caste by sending out colonies guided 
the course of trade, it did not itself in general directly participate 
in it. It would, indeed, have been altogether contrary to the man- 
ners of the East, for a cast of priests to have become a tribe of 
merchants ; nevertheless, without directly following trade, they 
contrived to obtain a share of its benefits, and the consideration 
which this cast obtained through it was very great ; partly from the 
oracles ; partly from the number and variety of the merchants; and 
partly from the peaceful security which their religious institutions 
afforded them. 

In illustration of this I give a passage from Burkhardt's Travels 
in Nubia, p. 326, etc. Here we read of a priestly establishment 
at Darner, a town of five hundred houses, seated on the south shore 
of the Tacazze or Mogrew, just before its junction with the Nile, 
therefore in the isle of Meroe. In this small but independent State 
the authority is in the hands of a high priest, called El Eaky El 
Kebir, who is their real chief and oracle giver. The office is her- 
editary in one family. The Faky El Kebir, or great Faky, lives the 
life of a hermit, shut up in his chamber all the morning till about three 
o'clock in the afternoon, after which he transacts business till after 
sunset. He occupies a small building, one part of which is a chapel 
and the other, a room about twelve feet square, in which he con- 
stantly resides day and night. He is a venerable looking figure, 
clothed in a long white robe. There are many Fakys under him of 



CHARACTER AND SCHOOLS OF THE FAKYS. 67 

various ranks, who enjoy more or less a reputation for sanctity. At 
Darner, are several schools to which young men repair from Dar- 
four, Sennaar, Kordofan and other parts of Soudan, in order to ac- 
quire a proficiency in the law and in the reading and interpretation 
of the Koran. The schools are in an open space, adjoining the great 
mosque. Imagine, instead of this, a temple dedicated to Amnion 
and instead of the Koran and Law the priests' ritual and the books 
of Thoth or Hermes and you will easily represent to yourself one 
of the ancient priestly establishments of Meroe, and of which 
Meroe was the parent. "The affairs of this little hierarchical 
state," continues Burkhardt, " appear to be conducted with great 
prudence. All its neighbors testify much respect for the Fakys ; 
the treacherous Bischarein are even so completely kept in awe by 
them that they have never been known to hurt any of the people of 
Damar, when traveling from thence across the mountains to Sou- 
akin. They particularly fear the power of the Fakeys to deprive 
them of rain and thus to cause the deatli of their flocks. It is also 
a trading state ; caravans pass occasionally from Damar to Don- 
golah, Shendy, Souakin and the Arabian gulf; for many of the 
fakys are traders. Caravans generally make a short stay at this 
place, as the land is well cultivated and common necessaries easily 
obtained. Two fakys accompanied the caravan as guards as far 
as the limits of the country of Shendy. The road is dangerous 
and the inhabitants upon it robbers ; but such is the fear enter- 
tained of the fakys of Damar that the mere sight of them march- 
ing unarmed at the head of the caravan was sufficient to inspire the 
country people with great respect. It would require an armed 
force to pass here without the aid of some of these religious men." 
This passage will make it more easily understood how settlements 
of priests influenced the course of trade. 

Men who are accustomed to a settled abode in cities are not fit 
for a caravan life, constantly on the move. In Arabia, then, as 
well as in Africa, these caravan communities are formed of the no- 
madic tribes. The nature of the trade necessitates the employment 
of a great number of hands ; to care for the camels and other beasts 
of burden; to load and unload the goods ; to protect the caravan 
generally from robbery and violence. The assistants not unfre- 
quently become merchants themselves. The nomadic tribes of 
which Africa and Yemen are full are not only the best adapted to 
the caravan trade but possess in their camels, their dromedaries and 
their herds the only means for carrying it on. It was thus that the 



68 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

merchandise of the Sabeans was conveyed to Yemen by the Nabatu 
and the Midianites ; it was thus that the Carthaginian caravans were 
formed by the Nassamones andLotophagi ; and thus, in the present 
day, those from Tripoli to Cairo are formed by the inhabitants of 
Fezzan. 

The regions of Ethiopia, we know, were also occupied by vast 
numbers of pastoral tribes. The nations who dwelt to the west of 
Meroe, along the banks of the Astaspus, tribes of Agows and Bed- 
jahs, were not unknown in Egypt, which they frequented with car- 
avans. They, occasionally speaking there of the river on which 
they dwelt, maintained it to be the proper Nile. Diodorus obtained 
this information from themselves in Egypt. The Troglodytae and 
their neighbors, the Ichthyophagi were engaged in the caravan busi- 
ness; they were so well acquainted with the routes to the most dis- 
taint parts of Africa that Cambyses chose them for the spies which 
he sent under the form of an embassy to the Macrobians. They 
were already able to speak the language of the nation, which showed 
that they had been accustomed to intercourse with them. 

The peoples of these countries were so well known in Egypt that 
even Herodotus could describe them as far as the Straits of Babel- 
mandel ; for he not only defined its location accurately but showed 
that where it ended on the south the land of frankincense begun. 
The caravans which trade between Egypt and Abyssinia are now 
and have been from time immemorial composed of the Bedjahs and 
Ababdes who at this time occupy the mountains and part of Nubia. 

These nomades appear as the carriers of merchandise in the pa- 
geants which Ptotemy Philadelphus gave at his accession to the 
throne, when among other exhibits the procession of an Arabic- 
Ethiopian caravan was shown. "There came a train of camels, car- 
rying three-hundred pounds of frankincense, crocus, cassia and 
cinnamon, together with two hundred pounds of other costly spices 
and drugs. These were followed by a host of Ethiopians, armed 
with lances ; one band of these bore six hundred elephants teeth, 
another two thousand pieces of ebony and another sixty vessels of 
gold, silver, and gold dust." (Athein. p. 201). 

Notwithstanding the part which these nomades took in conduct- 
ing it, the trade still remained in effect with the people of MeroS 
and Axum, who carried it on through their foreign settlements; 
and these places still remain what they are by nature and position 
adapted for, the great marts for the southern commerce. 

Thus from all that has been said the conclusion is plain that the 



ORIGINATION OF WRITING PERTAINING TO ETHIOPIA. (59 

first seats of commerce were the first seals of civilization. Exchange 
of merchandise necessitates exchange of ideas and adaptation and 
fitness for their intercommunication; and by this mutual friction 
there is kindled the sacred flame of moral and intellectual culture. 
That the civilization of the Ethiopians was connected with their 
religion appears throughout. Some scientific knowledge — perhaps 
a good deal more than is now generally supposed — was undoubtedly 
connected with it, else the erection of those monuments would 
have been impossible. It is strange that none of the ancient his- 
torians have made them philosophers or astronomers, for 
undoubtedly they were to a considerable degree both of these. 
Astronomy certainly could not have been unknown to a nation 
which, to notice nothing else as expouental of their intelligence, 
were wont to' spend much of their lives in journeyings across the 
deserts, where the stars of the firmament could be their only guide 
and whose climate brought a more regular change of seasons than 
we are accustomed to. Diodorus derives the civilization of the 
Egyptians in general from Ethiopia; this, however, is allowed to 
be true only in a limited sense ; it is supposed that the first germ 
shot forth in Ethiopia, but that the fruit did not attain its full 
growth till transplanted into Egypt. 

The express testimony of Diodorus informs us that the Ethiopians 
possessed the art of writing, not in alphabetic characters, but 
picture writing, a proof of which is still preserved upon the 
ruins of Meroe. Hieroglyphical inscriptions are found as 
well in the vestibule of pyramids of Assur, especially in the 
sanctuary, as in the principal temple at Naga ; and from this 
passage of Diodorus the first invention of writing has been 
attributed to them. Criticism has disputed this point, the truth 
or falsehood of which it has been found impossible to prove. The 
invention of this kind of writing would, however, be nowhere more 
easy than among a people with so decided a bias for the pictorial 
arts; nor the perfection and use of it more natural than among a 
people whose government, next to religion, was founded upon trade. 
Diodorus further informs us that the knowledge of picture 
writing in Ethiopia was not a privilege confined solely to the caste 
of priests, as in Eygpt, but that every one might attain it as freely 
as they might, in Egypt, the writing in common use. This general 
use, then, may be regarded as a proof of its having been applied 
to the purposes of trade. A great commercial nation altogether 
without writing could hardly be supposed to exist, and however 



70 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

deficient hieroglyphics might be found to be for the multifarious 
wants of our trade, yet it seems to have been quite adequate for all 
the purposes of the caravan trade, whose regular course and simple 
merchandise required but few accounts to be kept. 

To those who give sufficient attention and study the subject in the 
proper and manner and spirit, the piety and justice of the Ethio- 
pians, the fame of which spread to the distant regions, will not be 
difficult to understand. In a nation whose policy was to establish 
upon the basis of the connection of religion and commerce and not 
by means of violence and oppression they are the first virtues that 
would be cultivated. 

One of the greatest problems remaining, although one of the 
greatest certainties, is the progress that nation has made in archi- 
tecture and to a certain extent in the pictorial arts. 'The ruins of 
those colossal monuments, more or less preserved, are still there to 
be seen and will remain the proofs of the awful magnificence of their 
architecture. 

" It is," says Prof. Heeren in his Eesearches, " one of the worst 
errors into which we but too frequently fall to consider ourselves 
as the standard of what is or can be done by other nations under 
the circumstances. Is it necessary that the band between science 
and architecture and the plastic arts should everywhere be as 
closely knitted together as with us? Might not mechanical dexter- 
ity and handicraft be carried to a high degree of perfection on their 
own account alone? Is it not possible then that the powerful 
vigor of a nation might be drawn by circumstances to concen- 
trate itself upon one point and in that way might here have produced 
works which to us seem supernatural? Is not, indeed, the connec- 
tion between scientific and artificial improvement in our own coun- 
try very different from what it was in the middle ages, when our 
forefathers erected those lofty domes which we still gaze at but 
cannot imitate?" 

The hand of time has, in the regions of Africa, altered the nature 
of the tie between commerce and religion, but has never been able 
to dissolve it. How little, taken as a whole, do we find the people 
of Africa to differ from what they were. Temples and sanctuaries 
seem always to have been the objective points of their trading jour- 
neys, as they are in the present day. About those obelisks lodged 
at one time the caravans journeying to the temple of Amnion, 
which now perform their pilgrimage of the Caaba of the prophet at 
Mecca. 



ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ART. 71 



As to the Monuments in the Wile's Valley. 

The valley of the Nile, in its whole course, was once covered with 
a succession of cities and monuments, which must have formed, 
with but little interruptions, one continuous chain. Egypt, the 
upper part of which, from its southern boundary down to Chem- 
mis, contains among its divisions the ancient Thebaid, is called 
Upper Egypt ; and the lower or northern part, from Chemmis to 
Cercasorus, where the Nile divides into two branches, is called Mid- 
dle Egypt, is found to present considerable differences as to the 
remains of antiquity found in those different sections at present. 
As we ascend the river those relics increase both in number and 
importance, those of Upper Egypt being by far the most numerous 
and interesting. In the whole of Middle Egypt, except a few quite 
decayed ruins and the antiquities of Arsinoe or Fayoum, not yet 
sufficiently examined, the pyramids are the only architectural mon- 
uments which now remain. While Upper Egypt, on the other 
hand, contains all those temples, which, however unintelligible 
the insciptions and representations on their walls, are far better cal- 
culated by their awful magnitude and their altogether peculiar style 
to give us some idea of what this nation formerly was. This 
series of monuments commences at Dendera or Tentyris, 26° N. 
Lat., on the western side of the river, where the temple so cele- 
brated for its zodiac at once inspires the beholder with the idea of 
a gigantic and massive architecture, differing from what any other 
country on the globe has produced. A glance at this, however, 
wherein some of the painted sculptures appear as if about to speak, 
only prepares the astonished explorer for the more magnificent 
wonders, which await him about twenty miles further up the river, 
in the monuments of Thebes. The whole width of the valley, on both 
banks of the stream, forming an area of about uine miles from west 
to east, is covered with the ruins of this magnificent ancient city, 
and where the habitations of the living end there begin the dwell- 
ings of the dead, which extend to a considerable distance into the 
mountains on the west. Temples, whose huge masses tower up like 
mountains, surrounded by colossi, sphinxes and obelisks, whose 
magnitude insures their continuance, are scattered over the plain. 
Thousands of years have already passed over them, yet neither the 
course of time nor the destroying ravages of barbarians have wholly 
effected their overthrow. At Karnac of Thebes the great temple 



72 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

of Jupiter Ammcm still exists; at Medinet Abou and Luxor, of the 
same place, the stately palaces of the Pharaohs are still standing; the 
Colossus of Memnon, one of the wonders of the ancient world ; the 
other temples and colossi, whose number can scarcely yet be told ; 
and the royal sepulchres, with their paintings as fresh and uninjured 
as though they had received the last stroke of the pencil but yester- 
day still remains. From this place to the southern boundary of 
Egypt, link after link of the chain of monuments follow in rapid suc- 
cession. Thebes is scarcely left behind before the remains of 
the ancient Hermonthis, now Erment, present themselves to view. 
Here is a temple of Typhonius, the exterior much defaced, but the 
interior in good preservation; in one of its ceilings are the signs of 
the zodiac. About eighteen miles further is the temple of E*neh, 
the ancient Latopolis; and on the eastern or opposite bank of the 
Nile is what is left of the former Chnubis. At nearly the same 
distance still further to the south follows Edfu, the great city 
of Apollo of former ages, with the most magnificent and perfect of 
all the temples, that of Thebes excepted. Adjoining the great 
temple is a smaller one, whose ornaments leave no doubt of its hav- 
ing been dedicated to Typhon. Near to the temples of the benev- 
olent deities it was customary among the Egyptians to build that of 
the evil principle. And to this immediately follow the monuments 
of Eleithyia, a place highly interesting from the two sepulchral 
grottos it contains, with paintings representing the domestic life of 
the Egyptians. Then Silsilis and Ombos, all on the eastern bank 
of the river. Scarce twenty miles further south we come to the 
ancient southern boundary of Egypt. It is here especially that the 
nation seems to have outdone itself in the erection of monuments, 
as though it would impress strangers from the south, on their first 
entrance into its territory, with an idea of its magnificence and 
grandeur. A short distance, farther, on the north side of the cata- 
racts, immediatel}' following Syene or Assouan, the ancient frontier 
town of Egypt, lies in the midst of the stream the island of Ele- 
phantis ; and just beyond the rapids, about six miles to the south 
of Syene, is that of Phylae. Both these islands, especially the lat- 
ter, are full of the grandest monuments of architecture. Phylae 
is said to contain the remains of five magnificent temples, not, 
indeed, among the largest, but of the highest finish in regard to 
workmanship. This was one of the holy places, where, in a retired 
spot, is shown the tomb of Osiris. Here Greeks, Romans and 
Arabs have erected buildings, which have disappeared or lie scat- 



Joseph's canal in the fayoum. 73 

tered in the dust; while the monuments of ancient Egypt, which 
preceded the oldest of them for indefinitely long periods, stand 
prominent among the plain groves which surround them, seemingly 
imperishable. 

Even from the foregoing sketch of the marvels of architecture 
and sculpture, contained within the narrow strip of the Nile's val- 
ley, a conviction will, at least to some extent, be produced, that 
there did exist a time when this classic ground was the central point 
of the civilization of the world, and when its inhabitants must have 
possessed much that constitutes an opulent and mighty, an intelli- 
gent and cultivated nation. 

Middle Egypt, as well as Upper Egypt, had its fertility confined 
to the banks of the Nile ; the valley, therefore, was exclusively the 
seat of wealth and culture. But here, the valley, which in Upper 
Egypt is always so contracted, begins gradually to expand ; though 
its whole breadth as far as Fayoum scarcely any where exceeds 
twelve or fifteen miles. A large canal drawn from and running 
parallel with the Nile, on its western side for nearly 150 miles, well 
known by the name of Joseph's Canal, serves, as far as it goes, to 
extend the overflowing of the river. Near Fayoum, however, the 
valley widens as the Libyan chain of mountains retires towards the 
west, and forms a very fruitful province, which is watered by a 
branch of Joseph's Canal. This part of Egypt, anciently called 
Arsinoe, in distant ages was celebrated for its stupendous works of 
art, the most considerable of which was hike Moeris, said, as a res- 
ervoir of the Nile, to have secured the fruitfulness of the province. 
A part of this remarkable lake still exists under the name of Lake 
Kerun. Modern research has here shown, contrary to the opinion, 
which appears to have been entertained by Herodotus, that this 
lake-basin cannot be entirely regarded as of man's handiwork, but 
that art here only assisted and brought into use the work of nature. 
A greater part of the province of Arsinoe formed a valley, which by 
the annual overflowing of the Nile was placed under water, that, on 
the fall of the river, again formed a natural passage out through a 
gorge on the southwest part of the valley. In this state of things 
it required only the construction of a few dams and canals in order 
to regulate these changes of the water. 

Not far from this lake stands one of the greatest constructions of 
ancient Egypt, the celebrated Labyrinth, of which Herodotus says : 
" Whoever will take the trouble to compare them, will find all the 
works of Greece much inferior to this, both in regard to the work- 



74 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

manship and expense." Or, as another sees fit to translate it: 
" All the buildings of the Greeks put together could not have cost 
so much." We learn from more recent accounts that many re- 
mains of ancient Egyptian buildings and art are here still to be 
found; even the pyramid of brick mentioned by Herodotus may 
still be discovered ; but the whole of the buildings are now in ruins, 
and more or less buried in sand which has been driven from the 
desert by the wind. 

To the north of Arsinoe, the Lybian mountains again return to 
their former distance from the Nile and along the river's course 
through the remainder of Middle Egypt, leaves the breadth of the 
valley, in most places, somewhere about nine miles. No buildings 
are found here, as in Upper Egypt, although the city of Memphis, 
the more modern capital of the Kingdom, which would appear to 
have emulated Thebes, formerly stood here. The name still exists 
in the village of Menf, about twelve or fourteen miles to the south 
of Cairo, but it stands on the west bank of the river, while Cairo, a 
city built by the Arabs, stands on the eastern side. But if the 
abodes of the living have disappeared from ancient Memphis, those 
of the dead still remain. The whole mountain chain, as well as the 
sandy desert, which runs within the valley at its base, is full of 
tombs, similar to those that are found in Upper Egypt. This dis- 
trict, however, is particularly distinguished by another species of 
monuments, the pyramids, which by their prodigious massiveness, 
if nothing else, must forever excite the astonishment of mankind. 
These are situated sometimes single, sometimes in groups, on a strip 
of land thirty-five miles long, extending from Ghizeh or Djizeh, op- 
posite in a slanting direction, the present capital, Cairo, to beyond 
Meidun. Many of them are so gone to decay that only slight traces of 
them can now be discovered, while others continue to tower o'er 
the wrecks of time and to withstand the shock of ages. That it 
would have been difficult at any time to tell their exact number is 
evident. They all stand upon that sterile plain covered with sand 
and filled sepulchres, at the foot of the Libyan mountain chain. 
Those of Djizeh, opposite Cairo, which are generally understood 
when the pyramids are spoken of, are followed at about nine miles 
to the south by those of Sakkara, near the ancient Memphis, in the 
neighborhood of which are numerous sepulchres. Farther on are 
those of Dashoor and others, all more injured than those just men- 
tioned as far as Meidun. Although it be uncertain whether or not 
they reached beyond this it is pretty evident that pyramids were 



CHARACTER OF LOWER iEGYPT. 7.5 

never built in Upper Egypt, :is there is no reason why they should 
have gone to ruin there sooner than the large temples. Some think 
the cause of this phenomenon to be found in the difference of the 
stone which Upper and Middle Egypt produce ; but this cannot be 
fairly given as the reason, for the limestone of which the pyramids 
are mainly constructed is found in Upper Egypt, where the sand- 
stone and farther on granite also prevails. 

Lower Egypt begins at the point where the Nile divides into two 
branches. The division of its waters extends fertility, which, con- 
fined in Upper, and Middle Egypt to the narrow valley, here takes 
a wider range and stretches over the plains enclosed by the branches 
of the river. The western mountain-chain, which has hitherto 
straightened it here makes a bend into Libya; the eastern chain 
terminates just below Cairo with the mountain Mokattam. There 
is an ancient Egyptian tradition mention by Herodotus, that the 
Nile had at one time a different course and turned toward the Lib- 
yan desert. Even if this tradition should not be received in its 
fullest extent yet modern research has placed it beyond a doubt 
that at least a part of the stream formerly flowed toward Libya. 
The valley near the Natron lakes, from which it is only divided by 
a ridge, which in the western side of Lower Egypt is known by 
the name of the Waterless sea (Bahr Belama), gives very evident 
traces that it once formed, though long before the period to which 
proper history reaches back, the bed of the river. (Vide Me- 
moires Sur 1' Egypte i, 223, etc., by Gen. Andreossi). The stu- 
pendous dam, which turns the waters in a different direction, was 
ascribed by tradition to Menes, the first historical King of Egypt 
and founder of Memphis. According to the account in Herodotus 
the clamming was made one hundred stadia, eleven or twelve miles, 
above Memphis. It is, in fact, easily seen that it was by this dam 
that the waters of the Nile were first driven into their present chan- 
nels and the Delta rendered fertile and habitable. 

A striking example is given in Lower Egypt of the great changes 
which may take place in the features and shape of a country, by 
great physical convulsions and changes on the one hand, and on the 
other by the decay of its culture. But, with respect to the submer- 
gence and upheaval of the land itself within what may be called the 
historic ages, in this particular country, it must be remembered that 
the neglect of the canals and dams alone for a considerable space of 
time would be sufficient to cause much change. Gen. Andreossi, 
an investigator, who, by his knowledge of physics and hydrostatics, 



76 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

was competent to go thoroughly into the subject and judge thereof 
places it beyond dispute that, as to its origin, the Delta was formed 
from the sediment of the river, with, in comparatively late ages, 
some assistance from art, thus supporting the assertion of Herodo- 
tus that the Delta was a gift of the Nile. 

The constitution and character of the land of Egypt, in its differ- 
ent geographical divisions, lead us to suppose that the condition 
and character of its inhabitants must not only have been subject to 
great changes, but also that great dissimilarity must have existed 
among them. From the physical conditions of the country, there- 
fore, let us, for a brief space, turn our attention to the inhabitants 
and patiently make a few preliminary inquiries concerning them. 

In regard to this the first object of inquiry is the color, the fig- 
ure, 'in short the whole external appearance of the inhabitants or 
what may be called the national cast, in so far as this inquiry may 
enable us to unravel the intricate question regarding the particular 
race of men to which the ancient Egyptians may be considered as 

belonging. 

There are two sources whence we may draw in our effort to deter- 
mine this problem ; these are, first, the ancient writers ; and second, 
the monuments. 

Herodotus, speaking as an eye witness, mentions incidently that 
the Egyptians were a dark-brown race, with woolly or rather curly 
hair. This he does in his endeavor to prove that the Colchians, 
who had this color and hair were originally Egyptian colonists. 
AmmianusMarcellinus confirms Herodotus in calling the Egyptians 
brown. But to the sober-minded modern travelers the ancient 
Egyptians were in appearance much the same as the Copts, their 
descendants, are to their eye to da}'. " I believe," says Denon, 
" the ancient race of the Egyptians to exist in the present Copts ; 
a kind of dark colored Nubians (basames), much as they are seen 
on the ancient monuments; flat foreheads, half woolly hair, the 
eyes rather staring, high hips, the nose rather short than flat, a 
large mouth with thick lips, placed rather distant from the nose, a 
thin and poor beard, few graces of body," etc. " The color of the 
skin," says Belzoni, " is nearly the natural color, if we assume that 
the (ancient) Egyptians were of the same color as their decendants, 
the present Copts, of whom some are as fair as Europeans." Few 
countries, however, are from their situation more exposed to the 
invasions of foreigners than is Egypt, surrounded as it is on three 
sides by nomad hordes ; and as it has always been a principal 



EGYPTIAN ETHNOLOGY. 77 

place for trade it has been much visited by strangers, who, however, 
we need not suppose were likely to have intermingled largely with 
the body of the people. We must also remember that Egypt had 
been civilized in its own way for thousands of years before the 
visit of Herodotus, during which time many changes might have 
taken place. 

The truth of this remark will be best confirmed by the monu- 
ments which still exist of ancient Egypt. A number of various 
sized idols have often been referred to, from which we should judge 
of the physiognomy of the people, and, although the negro features 
appear in some of these, it must be considered that we can neither 
fix the time when nor the district where these were made. In the 
judgment of some distinguished critics the Sphinx's head comes 
the nearest to the ancient Egyptian profile. One of them, namely, 
the colossal Sphinx's head* near to the great pyramid of Djizeh, 
was thought by one critic to have presented a slight cast of the 
negro ; but at first glance I thought it might fairly be taken as 
representing a different race, namely, the Phoenicians, that is, if 
we are to understand, as is reasonable, that those people are repre- 
sented in their descendants of the present day. As, however, the 
Phoenicians are supposed to have been a bearded race and the 
Sphinx is beardless it may have been designed to represent the 
Egyptian variety of that race, for, according to Gen. x:6, the 
Egyptians and Canaanites or Phoenicians were descended respect- 
ively from Mizraim and Canaan, two sons of Ham, or Cham, a 
son of Noah. 

But, in relation to this subject, if we study the monuments, the 
temples, obelisks, etc., of which we can certainly pronounce that 
they belong to the flourishing periods of the Pharaohs, we shall find 
this course most agreeable to sound criticism. These are largely 
covered with works of art, which contain a great number of human 
figures, either representing deities or men. They clearly indicate 
all through a desire in the artist to copy nature, from their faith- 
fully representing the peculiarities of the different peoples, their 
features, color and nature of their hair, etc. The same proofs 
that this was the case are found upon the temples of the Thebaid as 
upon the ruins of Persepolis in Asia. If the historical meanings 



*"Thothme3 IV (I8th dynasty) haa left few monuments worthy of note, except the great 
8phinx at the pyramids, which bears his name and appears to have been cut out of the 
rock by his order, and here again a similarity of name led Pliny to consider it the sepul- 
chre of Amasis." His time ace. to Brugsch Bey 1533, B. C. Eawl. Herod. App. Bk. ii, p. 359. 



78 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

were designed to be readily understood necessity must have led to 
this, and from this it probably became a rule of ancient art, and as 
a consequence those countries are vast libraries of lithic books. 
Says a distinguished critic in this line: " It is impossible to com- 
pare these monuments, as they are now delineated, and to consider 
the people who erected them to have been negroes. I refer here to 
the great historical bas-reliefs upon the temples at Thebes, with 
which Denon has first made us acquainted. The figure of the king 
comes before us at different times and upon different occasions. It 
is always the same head; so that, according to the writer himself, 
it seems to be a portrait, or rather an idealized portrait. But it is 
so far from having the least appearance of African lineaments that 
it seems rather to approach the Grecian model. Just as little re- 
semblance is there to be seen of the ideal African in more than a 
hundred heads of his attendants, as well warriors as priests. I 
refer as well to the other reliefs upon all the temples above Thebes, 
so far as they are made known to us in the great work upon Egypt. 
I refer, finally, to the very accurately finished plate of the repre- 
sentations upon the obelisks, for which we are indebted to Zoega. 
Compare also the heads of the sphinxes and deities upon the top of 
the obelisk on Mount Citatrio, and the similar fragment of another 
in the museum of Cardinal Borgia, and see if there be anything to 
be found of the ideal African character." (Heeren's Researches, 
etc.) 

Although, perhaps, this author, from whom I have quoted, should 
not justly be understood in that way, yet his general tenor might 
be thought to convey the notion that his opinion of what we under- 
stand as the negro race was not a very elevated one, as we would 
say ; and 3'ethe appears to coincide with the opinion of Champollion 
that the Egyptians were a genuine African descended race and 
nearly black. Now, the Latin word niger, from which, what we un- 
derstand as the typical African has his appellation of negro, means 
black, and, we know there are some we call negroes that are, first, 
much blacker than others ; that is, there are varieties of this color 
represented in the race ; and, secondly, we know further that there 
are some negroes who have as i*ood facial features and as e;ood figures 
or physical shapes as any white man on earth ; not to mention, finally, 
that some negroes have as good and sweet a disposition, have as 
pure a heart and mind, and, we have reason to believe, are as pure 
and good in the sight of God as any white person. But, you say, 
this is a slight digression from the main subject; and for what pur- 



JUDGE RIGHTEOUS JUDGEMENT. 79 

pose ? My friend, consider thou, that because an individual of your 
species is of a black or brown or red or any other color you please, 
this should not prevent but that he should, in your judgment, both 
public and private, have equal rights as if of any other color than that 
he hath, or of a combination of all colors, say white. Much injustice 
has been done to individuals and races by the entertainment in the 
mind of nations or corporations, or individuals, of ideas of their 
inferiority in some way or other, although if everything in the 
respective cases were known, the persons entertaining these ideas 
and those of whom they were entertained would be in no good 
thing or character inferior to one another. My friend, consider 
thou, that thou shouldst practically allow and give equal rights to 
all human beings, and that thou shouldst not judge so much from 
appearance as to judge righteous judgment. But, is our author 
correct in agreeing with Champollion that the Egyptians were a 
genuiue African descended race? You may agree with him in 
that; but, whether correct or not, you will find that Mizraim, or 
Egypt, descended from the same ancestor as did Nirnrod, the 
founder of Nineveh, and as that great and powerful and dominating 
raceof Central Asia called the Assyrian, yea, and Babylonian. (See 
Gen., chap. x.). Of course, the Egyptian race must have ap- 
proached more or less in general appearance, color and character 
to the nations on all sides of them ; on the one side to the nations 
of Africa to the south and west and to the south-east and south-west 
of them ; and, on the other side, to the Syrians, Assyrians, Persians 
and Indians of Asia, as well as in later times very slightly to the 
Greeks and the peoples of Asia Minor. Their position on the map 
among those nations would imply in general what I now say as to 
the Egyptians ; that is, I mean without their necessarily having had 
much intercourse with foreigners ; for we learn that as to foreign- 
ers they were, as far as they were able, generally disposed to be 
exclusive, to maintain their own laws and customs, and so their 
own type of race, but the monarchs, to some extent, married 
foreign wives. 

Of this type the ancient Egyptians have left us abundant illus- 
tration in the pictures of themselves on the walls of the chambers of 
of the dead. The colors in these appear still so fresh and perfect 
as to excite the wonder of every one who examines them. The 
subjects mostly relate to the domestic life of the Egyptians ; the 
human figure is consequently very frequent in all its positions. 
Everything else being faithfully copied from nature it is reasonable 



80 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

to conclude that these are also. Although Bruce had already called 
the attention of the world to those pictures in the royal sepulchres 
of Thebes yet it was the literati attached to the French expedition, 
who were thoroughly competent to examine them and took the 
pains to do so, who first imparted to us a clear conception of them. 
The first remarkable specimen of them is given in the sepulchres of 
Eleithyias, in the Thebaid, which is found to be the true school for 
Egyptian antiquities, because they represent their whole manner 
of living and almost every part of their domestic economy. Women 
as well as men are here portrayed; the "men are red; the 
women yellow ; the clothes white; the hair of the men is very dark, 
curled but not short, as among the negroes." (Costaz 1. p. 156.) 
Still clearer proofs are found in that magnificent sepulchre opened 
at Thebes by Belzoni. In these the light and dark men are expressly 
distinguished and in such a manner that the former are represen- 
ted as the victors or rulers and the latter as the conquered or pris- 
oners. " I remarked, " says Denon, " many decapitated figures; 
these were all dark, while those who had struck off their heads 
and still stood sword in hand were red. " But in that of Belzoni 
not only the light and dark, but, in the case of the ambassa- 
dors, the three principal colors, white, brown and black are disting- 
uished from each other with the nicest exactness. There appears 
no question in the mind of explorers as to whether or not the Egyp- 
tians wished to represent the proper color of the skin in their paint- 
ings, so far as their colors, or rather their knowledge of combining 
the colors to produce certain varieties of color, would allow. They 
appear not only to have endeavored to represent the color, but also 
the physiognomy of the different nations in the exactest manner 
possible. It has been asked: " Who can mistake the Jewish physi- 
ognomy among the captives in plate VII of Belzoni?" But these 
may have represented Arabs, Phoenicians, Syrians, Assyrians, or, 
etc., all of whom bore such a close similarity of features, dress, &c, 
to each other. Look at the human figures on the slabs from Nin- 
eveh in Layard, and Rawlinson and see if they do not bear a close 
resemblance to our typical Israelite. When Denon descended one 
of the openings which lead to the sepulchral chambers, he found his 
previous suspicions to be in a still more certain manner confirmed 
by nature. A number of mummies which whre not banded up, 
showed that the hair was long and lank and the shape of the head 
itself approximating to the beautiful. In relation to this I may say 
we have reason to believe that the kings of Egypt occasionally ex- 



ETHNOLOGY OF THE .EGYPTIANS. 81 

ercised their prerogative of selecting their wives from nations out- 
side of the hounds of Africa. In my mind, therefore, it would not 
be a necessary conclusion that all those buried in the Egyptian 
royal tombs were of Egyptian or African race. 

By way of illustration of the subject of the Egyptians proper 
we may refer to a matter of two documents, in the form of com- 
mercial contracts, of which the original of the one was at Paris, 
the fac-simile of the other at Berlin. These have been translated 
by Prof. Bockh and Mr. H. S. Martin. They are found to belong 
to the period of the Ptolemies, the names occurring in them being 
Egyptian. The men in both are described, according to their ex- 
ternal appearance and, of course, their color. In the Berlin 
document the seller, Pamenthes, is said to be of a dark color, 
(tuXarxpux;) which is the word used by Herodotus in describing 
the color of the Egyptians ; and the buyer, Osarreres, is said to 
be honey colored or yellowish. The shape of the nose and face is 
also stated but give no idea of our ideal African physiognomy. 

From all we have seen thus far, tkei-efore two things arereason- 
ably inferrable ; one that among the ancient Egyptians themselves 
there was a difference of color, as individuals are expressly dis- 
tinguished from each other as being of a darker or lighter complexion ; 
the other is that the castes of warriors and priests, according to 
the representations on all the monuments executed in colors, be- 
longed to the fairer class. Their color is dark-brown or in some 
cases swarthy. It cannot be maintained that the color was ex- 
actly the same as that applied to them upon the monuments ; but it 
has become a fixed and settled type, in the same manner as the 
yellow or yellowish complexion became the standing type for 
women. The deities, on the contrary, both male and female, had 
in general distinctive coler, but the individuals amongst them 
differ. 

It has by some investigators been concluded that although there 
was a standard dark colored race in Egypt this was not the only 
race there, but that there was also a tribe fairer though not com- 
pletely white which had for a period spread themselves over not 
only Lower and Middle but also over Upper Egypt. "We may 
moreover conclude," says Heeren (Researches, etc.), "that this was 
the ruling tribe, to which the king, the priests and warriors lie- 
longed; and that the magnificent monuments of art in this district 
were erected by them. The case is very different, notwithstanding 
its connection with the foregoing subject, when we come to exam- 
6-b 



82 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

ine into the descent of the fairer race and to inquire whether it 
was of African origin or not. I have observed upon another oc- 
casion that this question cannot be determined from history. Can 
we, indeed, trace the origin of other nations, the Greeks, for ex- 
ample, or even our own from public records ? Recourse, there- 
fore, can only be had to such arguments as may be drawn from the 
nature of the people themselves, both as regards their external 
appearance and their civilization." 

Since the obscurity which overhung the subject of Egyptian 
civilization has been so well cleared up by the investigations of the 
monuments this question has either assumed a different aspect or 
has been answered with greater satisfaction. The southern frontier 
of proper Egypt forms merely a political boundary; the whole 
strip of land from Meroe to the Mediterranean, along the course of 
the Nile's valley, appears somewhat like a world in itself. The 
same deities which were worshiped in Meroe were worshiped 
along the whole course of the valley. We recognize the same art 
in their building, their sculptures and their paintings. We recog- 
nize just the same writing, the same hieroglyphics, upon the mon- 
uments of Meroe as upon those of Thebes ; and, if we knew that 
this writing was from the language spoken by the people, we might 
thence conclude that this language was spoken along the course of 
the whole valley. It is true we have no conclusive evidence re- 
specting the ancient language of the Ethiopians in Meroe and its 
relation to the Egyptian ; but it is considered that their close af- 
finity is proved by a passage in Herodotus. In endeavoring to 
show that the Ammonians were a colony of Egyptians and Ethiop- 
ians, he says: (jtw-^v jizzd^o afipoTepiov vofuZovTeg,') that is liter- 
ally enough "they used varieties of the same language ;" for it is 
evident the passage would have no sense at all if the languages had 
been altogether different. To this mav be added that the best in- 
formed and most accurate explorers recognize the same color, 
the same features, and, for the most part, the same fashions and 
weapons in the inhabitants of the upper part of the valley as they 
find portrayed on the Egyptian monuments. In reference to this 
says Heeren: " It was on this ground I was induced to express my 
opinion that it was the race of which we now discover the remains 
in the Nubian, though by loss of liberty and religion much degen- 
erated, which once was the ruling race in Egypt." And still Prof. 
Heeren considers this race to have had a fairer complexion than the 
great body of the Egyptian people and were the founders of the 



DIFFERENT RACES IN ^EGYPT. 83 

monuments and the originators of all works of art and of the 
civilization of the Nile's valley. There were indeed different races 
in Egypt from a very early period; and it is allowed the Hyksos 
dominated there for a long period of time. They, doubtless, had 
a perceptibly fairer complexion than the typical Nubian ; although, 
after a few generations there, if dressed up like the Egyptian or 
Nubian, they might be taken by an ethnologist for the same or a 
variety of ihe very same race. G. A. Hoskins says, in reference to 
the Hyksos, " and these shepherd kings or nomad hordes, with the 
vitality of a hardy and uncorrupted race, reigned over the degener- 
ated Egyptians at Memphis (the more remote districts probably 
tributary to them) from the twelfth to the eighteenth dynasty (a 
period as according to Lepsius of 500 years, according to Rouget 
of 1,900 years, and according to Bunsen of 922 years; while by 
Wilkinson's interpretation of the monuments it is only 340 years), 
leaving no records of their civilization or of deference for the re- 
ligion of the conquered race." ("A Winter in Upper and Lower 
Egypt, 1863, p. 75.") 

It is said that this race left no monuments there after them of 
their own erection, nothing to indicate their long residence or dom- 
inancy (but, according to the shortest period given above, that 
by Wilkinson, they were in Egypt for about eleven or twelve suc- 
cessive generations, long enough, it would reasonably appear, hav- 
ing the power in their own hands, for them to have at least partially 
stocked with their own race all the districts of Egypt) ; and that 
instead of introducing civilization and encouraging culture, they 
went in a fair way of obliterating all that was there before they en- 
tered. They must, indeed, according to this, have been savages, 
men who not only lacked all genius, but the elements of common 
sense and humanity. But, can we suppose that they did not make 
such an impression upon the country, during their long occupation 
of it, as not to leave a noticeable element of their own fairer-skinned 
race after them (if perchance by this time they had a fairer skin 
than the Nubian who is taken fairly to represent the typical ancient 
Egyptian) when a certain portion of them returned from the coun- 
try, saber in hand, having been worsted by one opponent who 
proved to have a stronger force than they, and went up and built 
Jerusalem. In one place Prof. Heeren makes the dominant race, 
who introduced civilization, culture, erected the monuments, en- 
couraged trade and religion, etc., to have been a fairer race dis- 
tinctively than the general race of the Nile's valley, but still truly 



84 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

African and of the priest-caste of Ethiopia. In another place he 
makes them to have been fairly represented by the Nubian on the 
monuments, which might, of course, be taken as indicating them to 
have been truly African, but would hardly account for the extra 
fairness of the skin which he attributes to them in another place. 

It is alleged that there is no proof of any monuments having 
been erected prior to the 18th dynasty. If it be said the Great 
Pyramid was built by the fourth dynasty recent investigation makes 
this to mean that it was built by the 20th, which embraced the real 
fourth ; and that the 18th dynasty, so called, embraced the first and 
was really Shepherd. If the implication in the allegation 
above referred to be true not only before the Shepherds appeared 
in that county, but until after they were expelled therefrom, there 
was no civilization nor ability to represent it in monuments or rec- 
ords in Egypt or in the Nile's valley. The shepherds then must 
have stirred up those old Africans to produce the most remarkable 
and astonishing works of art that have ever been produced upon the 
face of the earth ! They must have set those people to thinking 
and acting, although, from the accounts of them, they would not ap- 
pear to have thought or acted much themselves. Or, was it not 
possible for some of those shepherd races, along the course of the 
ages of their residence in the Nile's valley, to have become priests ? 
It would seem that being kings for so long a period, some of them 
would have developed a genius for the priesthood and would have 
founded primitive monasteries and encouraged trade and civilization 
as was the wont of the priests. But, you will say that in such 
course they must have acted independently or have founded a caste 
themselves, they not being of the original priest-caste. If we 
rightly understand who those shepherds were, we have a type of 
their ancestors in the patriarch Abraham, who, as all the patriarchs 
of the Shepherd tribes, was both chief and priest of his clan. Mel- 
chizedek, of Salem, was both priest and king (Gen. xiv : 18). In 
the primitive institutions of the pastoral or shepherd races of Asia, 
the father of the family was priest as well as chief. " The system 
of patriarchal government," says Layard (Nineveh, etc.,ii, 9), 
" faithfully described by Burkhardt, still exists as it has done for 
4,000 j'ears in the desert." 

Now, with respect to the shepherd tribes, who, we are informed, 
were expelled from Egypt in 1542 B. C, and those who worsted 
and succeeded them, called of the eighteenth dynasty, it may be al- 
together unnecessary for me to remark here that it is no uncommon 



ASIATIC AND AFRICAN ^ETHIOPIANS. 85 

thing in history to find brothers of the different shepherd or Scythic 
families to disagree. Without adducing any particular examples, 
which might, perhaps, be thought insipid, I may remark that the 
Irish and Scottish monarchical histories are but too full of such. 
If the monuments of the Nile's valley be thought too much for the 
ability and genius of the Scythic race, why not those of Persepolis, 
of Nineveh, Babylon, etc., be thought too much for the same race 
originally? This, however, is intended rather to be suggestive than 
affirmative of this subject ; for, even if it were true that the Hyksos 
were a thoughtless, shiftless and unproductive race themselves, 
still we have a right to think concerning them in connection with the 
whole subject of the history of Egypt and of the Nile's valley and, 
while we make some suggestions not in their nature unreasonable, 
still leave the question an open one. 

For, with respect to the originators of the civilization and culture 
of the Nile's valley, many investigators have for themselves con- 
cluded that, if they proceed to derive that civilization from outside 
of that valley, itself, then the Indians or some tribe of the Indians 
of Asia are the only nation whence the ancient Egyptians and their 
civilization could have originally descended. It would be unreason- 
able to assert that no political or religious shoot could have been 
transplanted in the very early ages from India to Ethiopia ; and al- 
though only shoots in which every foreign trace would be lost in a 
greater or less number of successive generations by their being in- 
grafted into a foreign soil and climate — their mixture by blood 
with foreigners, so to speak — still, if they came there they should 
be not unlikely to have had descendants, whether or not these be- 
came civilizers or culture producers in the country. 

That some people from India found their way thither in early 
times historical proofs are not wanting. Syncellus (p. 120, Veni- 
tian edition) informs US Ai8ioi:e<; axo too IvSou izuTa/iuu dvaaavreq npbs 
tj AiybTtToo uixrjoav. " Aethiopians, who had emigrated from the 
river Indus, dwelt near Egypt." Historians, however, say that the 
immigration here referred to did not take place before the reign of 
Amenophis or Meinnon, belonging to the 18th dynasty; conse- 
quently in the flourishing period of the Kingdom of Thebes ; and, 
if this be so, neither the origin of the nation nor its civilization can 
be derived from this source. 

Moreover, Herodotus, VII., 70, in distinguishing the Ethiopians 
from the character of their hair, says: " The Eastern Aethiopiaus 
in Asia have straight hair, while the African Aethiopiaus have the 



86 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

most curly hair of all men." But in regard to this statement many 
investigators have found reason to take issue with the father of his- 
tory, as they claim to have found many African Aethiopians who, 
notwithstanding the color of their skin, have as straight and lank 
hair as the Aethiopians of Asia. 

The typical African was and is called Aethiopian, as Africa was 
called Aethiopia. Now, the first root of the name Asia is Aes, as 
that of Aethiopia is Aeth; that is, the th in the one is turned into 
its equivalent, s, in the other. The letter d, or dh, is doubtless the 
root consonant, which would be dialectically turned into s, as in 
Sesosis for Sethosis and Sesostris for Sethostris. I think, more- 
over, the root, Aedh, makes it sufficiently plain that the Saethites, 
or Sethites, the " Sons of God " of Genesis vi : 1, 2, were consid- 
ered by the ancient writers the aboriginal peoples of both Asia and 
Africa (Aes-fhir-ica), which would mean in either case the country 
of the children of God. 

" Thus much I know " (says Herodotus, IV, 197), " four nations 
occupy Africa, and no more ; two of these nations are aboriginal 
and two not. The Libyans and Aethiopians are aboriginal; the 
former lying northward and the latter southward in Libya ; the 
foreign settlers are Phoenicians and Greeks." Herodotus, though 
he may not have been altogether correct, nor yet as full as to 
information on this subject as would now be thought to be requis- 
ite, gives us, as he says, so far as he knew and how the matter was 
understood among the literati of Greece in his time. He describes 
in a general way and does not distinguish the inhabitants of Af- 
rica geographically and tribady as do modern explorers. In his 
time the eastern districts of northern Africa, above Aegypt, from 
the Nile to the Arabian Gulf, which we now comprise under the 
names of Nubia and Sennaar were occupied by two races ; one ab- 
original, which he included under the general name of Aethiopians, 
and the other an immigratory Arabian race, leading, for the most part 
a wandering life. In the army of Xerxes we find the Aethiopians and 
Arabians, above Aegpyt, associated under the same commander. 
According, however, to Pliny (vi, 34), the banks of the Nile, from 
Philae to Meroe, were occupied by Arabians, differing from the 
Ethiopians. But this was speaking without sufficient distinctive- 
ness, for the Nubian tribes, who actually occupy that space, speak 
a language different from the Arabic, and it does not appear likely 
that Arabians, who pride themselves upon their language, should 
have relinquished it in order to adopt that of a barbarous or con- 



ETHNOLOGY OF THE NUBIANS. 87 

quered people. As, iu Africa, the Arabian descent and language 
are considered the most honorable, investigators and explorers into 
the races and affairs of that country consider themselves justified 
in classing all those nations as aboriginal who do not speak Arabic, 
or give evidence, in some way, of their being of foreign descent. 

The Nubians are first mentioned by this name in the time of the 
Ptolemies by Eratosthenes in Strabo (p. 1135) ; but the name soon 
came into use, sometimes as a general name for the tribes dwelling 
on both sides of the Nile, from Egypt to Meroe, and sometimes in 
a more limited sense for the present Dongola. Their chief mark 
of distinction is that their dwellings are in the valley of the Nile. 
Burkhardt, in his explorations, appears to have made a specialty 
of this nation, and the accuracy of his accounts are shown by their 
having been honorably confirmed by the later explorers, Wadding- 
ton and Hambury. The position of this nation in the Nile's 
valley, as lying intermediate between Egypt and Meroe, being 
geographically, at least, a connecting link, shows of what interest 
and importance it is for us, by all the knowledge we can become 
possessed of, to know whether the Nubians be really a connecting 
link, physiologically, ethnologically and linguistically, between the 
inhabitants of ancient Meroe' and Egypt. The same result is, in 
effect, arrived at if we have become satisfied that they are of a com- 
mon stock of those nations, whether or not they might be consid- 
ered as a connecting link between these two. 

The Nubians, then, live in a land of monuments, which are reason- 
ably supposed to have been erected by their forefathers. Entirely 
different from the Arabic is their language, of which Burkhardt 
has given us specimeus ; and neither that nor their external appear- 
ance justifies that an Arabian origin be attributed to them. Thej r 
are of a dark brown color, with hair either naturally curly or arti- 
ficially arranged by the women, but not at all woolly ; it often 
forms an elevated ornament, like those on the monuments. Their 
visage has nothing of the typical negro features ; the men are well 
formed, strong and muscular with delicate features. They are 
something shorter than the Egyptians. They have only a little 
beard growing under the chin, as upon the Egyptian statues. They 
are very thinly clad, almost naked ; but are all armed with a spear 
five feet long, a dagger and a laroje shield, formed of the skin of 
the hippopotamus. The women are well made, with pleasing , 
features. The men buy them of their parents, but frequently, 
also, intermarry with the Arabs. ( Burkhardt, p. 194. ) According 



88 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

to Hennicke (p. 1G4), the Nubian is thin and slender, but beauti- 
fully formed, and his beauty is as unchangeable as that of a statue. 
He has more courage and daring than the Arabian, etc. The 
Nubian language is now spoken in Dongola, where the Arabic is 
spoken, but imperfectly. " In passing along the Wadys of Nubia," 
continued Burkhardt, " it often occurred to me to remark that the 
size and figure of the inhabitants were generally proportionate to 
the breadth of their cultivable soil ; wherever the plain is broad, 
and the peasants, from being able to carry on agriculture to a 
tolerable extent, are in comparatively easy circumstances, they are 
taller and more muscular and healthy ; but in the rocky districts, 
where the plain is not more than twenty to thirty yards in breadth, 
they are poor, meagre figures, in some places appearing almost like 
walking skeletons." Speaking further of the women, he says: 
" I have even seen beauties among them Denon has certainly not 
done justice to them, but they are worn down from their earliest 
youth by continual labor, the whole business of the house being 
left to them, while the men are occupied exclusively in the culture 
of the soil. Of all the women of the East, those of Nubia are the 
most virtuous ; and this is the more praiseworthy as their vicinity 
to Upper Egypt, where licentiousness knows no bounds, might be 
expected to have some influence upon them." 

From the foregoing it appears evident that the manners and 
character and to some extent the physical condition of the peoples 
of the Nile's valley could not have everywhere been the same. 
Local circumstances rendered this impossible ; for some districts 
only allowing this particular sort of life and no other, while others 
differed in these respects in allowing only a certain other sort of 
life; and the intercommunication between the peoples of the dif- 
ferent sections of the valley being in general only very limited, 
these causes in the course of generations must needs have produced 
very different developments of character in the peoples. The 
inhabitants of the eastern mountainous regions necessarily followed 
a pastoral life, as did also the tribes in the fenny districts of the 
Delta ; their soil being unfit for agriculture. Other tribes close to 
the Nile were fishermen and mariners, as the nature of their habita- 
tion made it more profitable than handicraft. But it is quite 
apparent that the civilized part of those peoples dwelling in the 
valley,* carried on all the principal branches of domestic business, 



* Outof about 60,000 square miles Egypt is said to have only about eleven or twelve thousand 
of cultivable land, its valley to the soutbern frontier being about 550 miles iu length. 



EGYPTIAN INSTITUTION OF CASTES. 89 

in all of which they attained to great perfection, as is ascertained 
from the representations found in the caves so often met with, 
where they are seen portrayed. Agricultural occupations, — 
plowing, sowing, digging, harrowing, reaping, binding, treading 
out the corn by oxen and storing it ; fishing with the hook as well 
as nets and salting the fish ; hunting ; the vintage and its various 
labors; cattle breeding and herds of kine, horses, asses, sheep ; 
the navigation of the Nile as well with sails as oars ; the weighing 
of live stock for sale, all this is here represented. 

But the difference of manners of life, if not of descent, which 
would appear generally indicated in the representations given us 
upon the monuments, is thought by sorce investigators to shed a 
light upon that celebrated institution, which the Egyptians had in 
common with the Hindoos, namely, the division into castes or 
hereditary ranks, of which according to the most accurate author- 
ities, there were seven in Egypt. The two most honorable were the 
priests and warriors; the next, merchants and shopkeepers and 
mariners; then two castes of herdsmen; to which may be added, 
but not till the later period of the Pharaos, the interpreters or 
brokers. Although the origin of castes among those nations 
transcends the period of written records and strict historical evi- 
dence cannot therefore be adduced, yet it is thought very probable 
that the difference of descent, connected with the different modes 
of life first laid the foundation of it in the Nile's valley and that 
the various castes at first were different tribes. It appears, how- 
ever, that policy in the infancy of civil society expected to find this 
rigid separation of professions a security for their preservation and 
a means for their perpetuation as in the idea a desideratum ; nor 
is there any doubt that accidental causes might and, in effect, did 
give rise to new castes, as, for example, that of the interpreters in 
Egypt in the time of Psammetichus; but the principal question 
here was, or is, from what cause did this institution originally arise? 
a question about which ere this the reader may or not be satis- 
fied in his own mind from all the preceding. But it is a great and 
astonishing fact, as Bunsen observes (vol. 1, p. 358), that the 
empire of Meroe, on its first appearance in history possessed an es- 
tablished mythology, that is, a series of gods. And there is, 
according to some, reason to suppose that the Egyptian mythology, 
if not its institution of castes, is derived originally from Asia. 
Bunsen's comparison (Id. p. 355) of some of the names of the 
Egyptian gods and goddesses with those of the Syrian, Phoenician 



90 CRKATOR AND COSMOS. 

and Baqylonian divinities is very striking and the names of the Asiatic 
deities do not appear to have been derived from the Egyptian. 

" Although," says Baron Eckstein, " the Coptic is the antipodes 
.of the Sanscrit, a thousand reasons seem to conspire to make us 
look in the basin of the Indus for the seat of primitive civiliza- 
tion, transported to the valley of the Nile, at an epoch preceding 
the time when Southern Asia was wrested from the Cushites by the 
Arian and Semitic races. If we find in the popular forms of worship 
of India, the contrast between which and the religious notions of 
the Vedas is so marked, a strong resemblance to the creeds of 
Egypt, is there any reason to feel surprised, when we discover some 
words in Coptic that have an equivalent in the Sanscrit? There is 
one thing which must never be lost sight of in any inquiry relative 
to those distant times. It is absurd to say : this is of Indian and 
that of Egyptian origin, for the influences that shaped them have 
followed the tide of immigration. 

Thus, even while admitting the influence of the Arian and Semitic 
creeds upon the forms of Egyptian worship, we cannot avoid recog- 
nizing in certain portions of the Vedas a character common to the 
religion of Egypt. The cause of these coincidences must be 
sought in the primitive extension of the race of Cush and of Shem 
in the regions lying in the immediate vicinity of the Arian tribes." 
(Researches Concerning Primitive Humanity.) 

Thebes. 

It is said that Egyptian sculpture can never be thoroughly 
understood and appreciated without seeing it with the rich and 
harmonious coloring which always accompanies it. It is only by a 
visit to the excavations, especially to those recently made and 
which have not been defaced by the accidents of time or the hand 
of man that we can understand what must have been the effect of 
the temples when gorgeously decorated. "A first visit to Thebes," 
says Mr. Hoskins, in describing his second visit there in 1803, 
" must ever be one of the most impressive events in every man's 
life. The gigantic and imposing ruins surpass everything of the 
kind to be seen elsewhere ; and the sculptures which adorn the 
walls of the temples and tombs are the only pages in which, as far 
as the knowledge of hieroglyphics extends, we can now with cer- 
tainty read the principal events of the greatest Egyptian Kings, 
their wars, their triumphs and their gratitude to the gods, the cer- 



EAELT AUTHORS ON THEBES. 91 

emonies and mysteries of the most mysterious of religions, and the 
arts, occupations, trades and primitive life of the people." 

It is extraordinary that Herodotus, who, according to his own 
account, was in Thebes, should have scarcely said a word about its 
monuments and but little more of its history. It is supposed by 
some that this conduct of his arose from Hecateus of Miletus having 
visited Thebes before him and that he may have thought it un- 
necessary to repeat. Let this have been as it may, all we have 
from Herodotus, as to its history, is a few particulars which he 
gathered in conversation with the priests there ; for what he saj^s 
elsewhere upon Egypt, from the accounts given to him by the 
priests, he seems to have obtained from the priests of Memphis and 
Heliopolis, cities which he had visited before he went to Thebes. 

Diodorus of Sicily, who visited Thebes in about anno (10 B. C, 
is our principal early authority upon that city. He, in his descrip- 
tions, therefore, speaks as an eye-witness, and there is as yet found 
no good reason of accusing him of falsehood or exaggeration ; he 
refers, also, to the agreements of his statements with those of other 
writers. 

As to the accounts, oral and written, open to him and which he 
derived from the Egyptian priests, he thus expresses himself: 
" What is found in the writings of the Egyptian priests I shall 
note down after having carefully examined it." Herodotus he 
mentions only with disapprobation, on account, as he says, of the 
fables with which he had diversified his narratives. The authors 
he most used were the elder Hecateus, whose affair with the 
Theban priests is mentioned by Herodotus ; the younger Hecateus, 
Cadmus and Hellanicus. 

Two centuries prior to the time of Diodorus, Manetho, the 
Egyptian high priest of Heliopolis or On, drew up in the Greek 
language, from the archives of the Egyptian priests, a continuous 
history of Egypt. This history, upon which some slight doubt has 
been thrown by some expressions in the writings of Eusebius, who 
lived nearly six centuries after Manetho, has in modern times been 
corroborated by the deciphering of the royal names and titles on 
the monuments through the discovery of phonetic hieroglyphics ; 
for a series of the names of the Pharaohs are here traced out, as 
they are found in the catalogue of Manetho, particularly in his 
eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties. 

By comparing together these three great writers upon the Egyp- 
tian antiquities we arrive at the following conclusions : As Hero- 



92 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

dotus made use of the priestly traditions at Memphis, Diodorus of 
those at Thebes, and Manetho of those at Heliopolis, together with 
all the others, it follows that we have in those three writers the 
priestly traditions (under which are comprised their written as well 
as oral accounts) as preserved by that body at the three principal 
seats of learning in Egypt. 

Thebes was built upon both banks of the river Nile, without, as 
far as we know, being connected by a bridge. The greater part 
and more considerable of the monuments are now denominated 
from the villages, which are situated in the plain on both sides of 
the stream. Thus, on the western side, are the villages of Medinet 
Abou and Gornou : on the eastern, Luxor and Karnac; and, quite 
at the northeastern end of the valley, Med Armuth, which is the 
extreme point of the ruins that now remain. They are, however, 
so similar in extent and grandeur that it is difficult to decide 
whether those on the eastern or western side should have the 
precedence. 

Monuments on the Western Side at Thebes. 

These are, indeed, of various descriptions, forming an almost 
uninterrupted series, from south to north, all in the vicinity of the 
Libyan mountain ridge, so that a large plain extends between it 
and the river, which, doubtless, was once filled with private dwell- 
ings. In proceeding from south to north the first object that 
arrests the attention is the remains of an extensive race-course, at 
whose southern extremity stands a small temple ; there is, however, 
fast by a gate of such large dimensions as to show that a much 
larger building must once have stood there. The area of this race- 
course, according to the estimate of the French, is seven times that 
of the Champ de Mars, near Paris, and consequently it afforded 
ample space for the review and exercise of such large armies as 
sometimes conquered on the Euphrates and subdued Asia Minor 
and Scythia. The whole was surrounded by an enclosure, which 
forms at present nothing more than a series of hills, among which 
the gates or inlets may yet be distinguished, of which there are 
reckoned thirty-nine, though their number are supposed to have 
amounted to fifty altogether. The principal entrance, where a 
large opening is left, looks eastward, and the general appearance 
of the enclosure shows that at one time it was embellished with 
stately edifices, composed of triumphal monuments. Probably this 



PALACE OF MEDINET ABOU. 93 

spacious plain was located just without the city ; a similar one of 
smaller dimensions is found on the eastern side, nearly opposite to 
this; and, if both were situated without the city, we may, with 
great probability, determine its southern boundary. These en- 
closures were, doubtless, used for exercising the troops, for chariot 
races, for prize contests, and, perhaps, when not in use, for the 
foregoing purposes, they may have been used for public pleasure 
parks. 

Directly at the northern end of the race-course is a palace and 
temple. Connected with the palace is a pavilion of two stories, 
containing many saloons and apartments and numerous windows. 
The situation is so chosen as to command a view not only of all the 
monuments of Medinet Abou, but also of those on the other side 
of the Nile, and of the whole plain in which Thebes was built. 
Everything, even the decorations which cover the walls, seems to 
indicate that this was the usual residence of the king. The subjects 
represented differ from those in the temple, being intermingled 
with scenes of domestic life; This edifice is in general much 
injured, the upper part of it being the best preserved. 

About 250 feet northwest of this pavilion is situated the great 
palace of Medinet Abou. Its entrance is formed by one of those 
mighty superstructures, which are comprised by the French under 
the name of pylons; the Greeks call them -KponoXaia. They consist 
of two obtuse pyramids, in this instance sixty-six feet high, which 
enclose between them the principal gate, forming the grand en- 
trance. This leads into a large court, which is surrounded by gal- 
leries, formed on one side by eight great pillars and on the other 
by pilasters, to which colossal statues of Osiris are fixed as carya- 
tides, but not so as to give any support. The sight of those colos- 
sal pilaster-caryatides excites in the beholder, so we are assured 
by eye-witnesses, an indescribable feeling of awe and veneration. 

Opposite to the principal entrance stands a second pylon, though 
on a somewhat smaller scale. It leads into a second court of pillars 
or a peristyle, whose galleries are likewise formed by pilasters with 
caryatides and columns. An eye-witness says of this: " Of all the 
parts of the building this peristyle is the most imposing by its tre- 
mendous massiveness and solemn grandeur. We are convinced that 
its founders wished to make it imperishable and that the Egyptian 
architects who were intrusted with its structure did their utmost to 
make it endure to the latest posterity. The pillars are colossal 
though not remarkably elegant ; their diameter near the base is 



94 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

nearly seven feet and a half and they are nearly twenty feet high, 
yet they do not seem too large to support the immense stone blocks 
which form the architraves and roof. Nothing is more wonderful 
than the beauty of those tall columns. The effect, however, of 
this peristyle is greatly increased by the pilaster-caryatides which 
add so greatly to its magnificence. When the Egyptian artists 
affixed the images of the gods to these pilasters, which support the 
splendid roof, covered with golden stars on blue ground, do they 
not seem to have intended to represent the deity himself under the 
arch of heaven, expanding in his ethereal space? For the people 
not to have been impressed with religious awe at the sight of this 
assemblage of their deities, who seemed to dictate the laws of wis- 
dom and justice which were everywhere written on the walls, we 
conceive to have been impossible. And if we, unacquainted with 
the religion and manners of the Egyptians, could not enter these 
walls, in which every pillar is a deity, without emotion, what a 
powerful impression must the sight of them have produced upon 
those who saw a religious mystery in every part?" This account 
from a present witness will be likely to inspire the reader with a 
juster appreciation of those once magnificent objects than a simple 
story about lifeless masses. The back part of the palace is chiefly 
in ruins ; but many apartments are still to be seen, which seem to 
have served as habitations, the description of which here could not 
be rendered sufficiently intelligible without a plan. 

The sculpture of this palace, both within and without, makes a 
still more interesting contemplation. On the outside are rep- 
resented scenes of war, battles by land and sea. In several rep- 
resentations of land engagements the Egyptians are conspicuously 
victorious. The king always appears on his colossal war chariot, 
armed with a lance, bow and arrows, his missiles, of course, car- 
rying consternation and destruction into the ranks of his enemies. 
The Egyptians are partly engaged in lighting and partly in mar- 
shaling their forces, two and four men deep. The same figure of 
the king again appears, now driving slowly along, now stopping 
and now forcing his way into the ranks of the enemy. Another 
piece represents a linn hunt. Standing in his chariot the king pur- 
sues two lions through the thicket ; one of them is already killed ; 
the other is fleeing, pierced by four arrows. The most remarkable 
of these pictures is the naval engagement. It represents the enemv 
repulsed in endeavoring to effect a landing and the victory seems 
decided for the Egyptians. The king is standing on the shore, 



REPRESENTATIONS ON THE WALL8. 95 

discharging missiles at the enemy, many of whom lie slain at his 
feet and others in front of him. Two squadrons are contending 
near the coast. The construction of the Egyptian war vessels is 
quite different from that of the Nile's boats, and they have always 
a lion's head at the prow ; they are properly called long ships. 
Those of the enemy are nearly of the same general construction. 
Although apparently decided the battle still continues. The ships 
of the enemy appear in confusion ; partly taken or sunk, and partly 
ready to strike colors. Even the traces of the naval tactics are 
observable. The hostile fleet is surrounded by the Egyptians and 
there appears no chance of a single craft escaping. In all these 
warlike subjects the several nations are most sharply distinguished 
by their costume, head-gear and accoutrements. In the laud battles 
the soldiers of the hostile army are invariably portrayed with beards 
and long garments. In the naval engagements, on the contrary, 
their clothing is short and light ; the head covering of one portion 
consists of a sort of round turban, ornamented at the top with a 
wreath of feathers ; the others wear a helmet seeminglj' made of 
the skin of a wild beast. They are a people from a southern 
climate ; the French artists at once recognized them as Indians. 
This difference of costume is also very accurately represented in 
the succeeding representations, so far as this can be observed in the 
present state of the structures. 

Of a somewhat similar nature, though different, is the sculpture 
in the interior of the palace. The subjects represented are tri- 
umphs, but closely connected with religion, for the procession is 
not only directed to the gods, but the deities themselves take part 
in it. The most considerable of those reliefs are found in the per- 
istyle above described. On one wall the victorious king, recogniz- 
able as such by the serpent on his head-dress, sits in his chariot. 
The horses adorned with splendid trappings are held and managed 
by his attendants. He himself is standing in a commanding atti- 
tude while the prisoners of war are brought before him. They 
advance four rows deep, every third or fourth being led by an 
Egyptian. They are dressed in blue and green cloaks, under which 
they wear a short covering round the middle. The Egyptians wear 
white garments with red stripes; all the colors are in good preser- 
vation. The prisoners are unarmed, their weapons tied above their 
heads. In the front of the conqueror's chariot are lying a heap of 
amputated hands, seemingly of the men killed in battle. As to 
the prisoners they do not appear mutilated. 



% CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

On the northern wall of this same peristyle is portrayed a tri- 
umphal procession. The king, seated on his throne, is borne on a 
rich palanquin by eight soldiers. They are adorned with feathers, 
the emblem of victory. The throne is covered with splendid car- 
pets ; the feet of the conqueror rests on a cushion. He carries in 
his hand the cross and keys, the emblems of consecration ; two 
genii stand behind and shade him with their wings. The lion, the 
sparrow-hawk, the serpent and the sphinx, emblems of greatness, 
are on his side. The procession consists partly of warriors, orna- 
mented with palms and feathers, partly of priests who offer incense. 
Another seems to recite from a roll the deeds of the victor. The 
procession moves towards the temple of Osiris, whose statue is vis- 
ible Four priests come to meet and receive the hero, and to lead 
him into the temple, where he presents his offerings. 

The train then proceeds and the god himself, leaving his holy 
habitation, accompanies the king, surrounded by every species of 
festive pomp ; twenty-four priests bear him on a kind of carriage. 
They are enrobed in long stately cloaks. At the head is the con- 
queror in different habit and head-dress. The sparrow-hawk 
hovers over him ; the sacred red bull follows in the train. Seven- 
teen priests bearing the attributes of the deity march first in the 
procession, the whole of which is now evidently changed into a 
religious pageant. It is not here the warriors, but the priests who 
act the principal parts. The scene again changes ; the king ap- 
pears presenting an offering to the gods. It is noticeable that 
this scene appears to relate to agriculture. A priest presents a 
handful of corn to the king which he cuts through with a sickle ; 
and afterwards he offers his gift to the god. Tiiis scene appears to 
represent the king as favoring the arts of peace and his gratitude 
to the overruling Providence for the products of agriculture ; 
the former portrays him in the splendor of his martial achieve- 
ments. The scenes are related to each other, though not closel}' ; 
but if the pictures were in a perfect state of preservation all the de- 
signs would be more easily understood. 

In one of the side rooms are sculptures which are equally deserv- 
ing of attention. The complete piece represents in three divisions 
the initiation of the king into the priestly mysteries. He is first 
purified by one of the priests; others then take him by the hand 
and lead him into the sanctuary. All here is mysterious, the 
priests nearly all appearing in masks of beasts. The French literati 
were under the impression that this whole representation set forth, 



TEMPLE AND FIELD OF COLOSSI. 97 

in some way, the deeds of Sesostris; and some who think that they 
substantiated their belief by the result of their researches appear to 
me as wise as they were in this matter. 

At some distance to the north of this place stands the temple of 
Medinet Abou. It faces the Nile and has propylaia in an unfinished 
state, which are also of later date than the chief temple. It now 
lies for the most part in ruins, its construction having been similar 
to that of the other temples. 

North-west of this temple follows a plain, partly covered with a 
mimosa-wood, which may be called the field of collossi. Seven- 
teen of these are counted upon this spot, some of which are still 
standing, while others are in part or altogether thrown down. 
Among them is the far-famed Colossus of Memnon, celebrated for 
the sounds which were wont to issue therefrom at the sun's rising. 

The first objects that strike the attention here are two colossi, 
close together, and both facing the Nile ; the northern one is called 
Da my, the southern Shamy. They are of sandstone, about fifty- 
two feet high or sixty with the pedestal. The weight of each when 
entire is estimated at something over 130 tons. The one to the 
south is formed of one piece ; the upper half of the other is now 
composed of five pieces. As colossi were originally monoliths 
among the Egyptians, it can hardly be doubted but that this was 
originally the case here. This statue, as we learn from the many 
inscriptions with which it is covered, chiefly of the first two cen- 
turies, was regarded as that of Memnon, as these inscriptions testify 
that their authors had heard the voice of the statue. But against this 
doubts have been raised, originating partly from the quality and 
color of the stone, and partly from the circumstances mentioned by 
Strabo, that the colossus was broken through in the middle, as it is 
also described by Pausanias ; and because the time of its restora- 
tion is unknown. But the French have shown these objections of 
no great weight, having proved the material to be sandstone, 
though now become black through the effect of the atmosphere ; 
and though the restorer of the statue is unknown to us, nothing 

CD * O 

can be argued from that, because the fact itself shows that it has 
been restored. This restoration is supposed to have been effected 
by Septimius Severus, who restored and repaired various objects in 
Egypt and elsewhere. 

At a moderate distance to the northwest of this colossus are 
found two immense stone blocks, covered with the most beautiful 
hieroglyphics, which probably were nothing more than the pedestals 

7—i 



98 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

of two other colossi. A little north of these close to a triple row 
of pillars, is a large fragment of a colossal statue, in a walking 
attitude above thirty feet high; and a little farther the trunk of 
another of black granite. Still farther and we come to the remnant of 
a colossus of yellow marble, represented as if walking, and a little in 
advance the remains of two sitting colossi of red granite ; and still 
beyond two others forty feet high, in a walking position. And 
since it has been proved that the level of the earth has been raised, at 
least fifteen or twenty feet, since the beginning of our era, how many 
others may still lie thrown down or broken beneath the surface of 
the earth? 

But what was the cause of this great number of colossi being 
thrown together in such seeming disorder. The nature of the spot, 
the various fragments of pillars, etc, lead some antiquarians to 
conclude that at some time an immense building stood here, which 
with its pylons and courts, its colonnades and saloons, must have 
been about eighteen hundred feet in length. The colossal statues 
may have stood before the pylons, in front of the entrances to the 
courts and portico, as is still the case in the palace of Osymandyaa 
and others. It appears to have been contrary to the general cus- 
tom of the Egyptians to place them anywhere except before or in 
the interior of their edifices. With regard to the colossal sphynxes, 
which formed avenues the case was different. This opinion, too, 
is supported by the fact that both Strabo and Pliny place the 
colossus of Memnon in a building, called by the former Memnonium, 
and by Pliny the Serapeum. Philostratus, also, in his life of Ap- 
pollonius, compares the sanctuary of Memnon with a forum, 
decorated with pillars, walls, seats and statues, which remind us of 
the great colonnades and halls of columns of the temples. If, how- 
ever, on the one hand, the enormous dimensions of an edifice that 
would contain such colossi impress us with wonder, it seems, on 
the other, not less surprising that so few remains of it are now left. 
This difficulty, however, disappears, if the building be supposed to 
have been erected of limestone ; for the old materials of such have 
always been used for lime. The immense excavation in the lime- 
stone rocks very plainly show that the number of these buildings in 
Egypt must have been very great. 

A discovery of Belzoni has confirmed this assertion. " I found," 
he says, "a great many fragments of colossal statues of granite, 
breccia and calcareous stones ; and from the great number of frag- 
ments of smaller dimensions, and of standing and sitting lion- 



PALACE AND TOMB OF OSYMANDYAS. 99 

headed statues, I can boldly state that these ruins appear to me 
to have belonged to the most magnificent temple of any on the 
western side of Thebes." 

Still farther north of the field of Colossi is the palace and tomb 
of Osvmandyas. The ruins of this building, facing the Nile, are 
the most picturesque of ancient Thebes. The building is com- 
posed of sand-stone. Many pylons, columns and pillars with 
caryatides are yet standing, whilst ruins of others as well as Colos- 
si forms large heaps around. Having passed through a majestic 
quadrangle you meet with a quadrangle above one hundred and 
forty feet in length and one hundred and sixty-one in breadth. This 
is all in ruins except two pillars, but the area is so filled up with 
blocks of granite that a person might fancy himself in a stone 
quarry, nevertheless, on a closer inspection, these are found to be 
merely the ruins of one immense colossus. It has been destroyed 
by violence, but the head, foot and hand still remain. The fore- 
finger is nearly four feet in length ; the breadth from shoulder to 
shoulder, in a straight line, is twenty-one feet. The height of the 
whole could not have been less than fifty-four feet. The pedestal 
eighteen feet high is still standing close to the pylon opposite. 
Both pedestal and colossus were of the most beautiful rose colored 
granite of Syene. The pit whence it was dug out is shown near 
that city and thence it is supposed to have been transported one 
hundred and thirty-five miles, notwithstanding it weighed nearly 
nine hundred tons (887 tons). Inquiries made on the spot have 
proved that this building contained four such colossi, of which one 
of granite seems to have stood near the one described. 

A second pylon not quite so lofty forms the entrance to a peri- 
style, which is also one hundred and forty feet in 1< ngth and one 
hundred and sixty in breadth. It was surrounded by galleries, 
formed in the north and south by a double row of pillars, in the 
east by a single row of pilaster-caryatides, and in the west by one 
row of pillars and another of pilaster-caryatides. The southern 
part is decayed but the northern is sufficiently preserved to enable 
us to form a correct idea of the whole. This peristyle contained 
two colossal statues, each about twenty-three feet. One is entirely 
of black granite, the body of the other is also black, but the head 
of rose-colored granite. This head is well preserved. " It posses- 
ses that graceful calmness, that happy physiognomy which pleases 
more than beauty. It would be impossible to represent the deity 
•with features which could make him more beloved and revered. 



100 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

The execution is admirable and it might be taken for the produc- 
tion of the best age of Grecian art did it not bear so evidently the 
Egyptian character." (Description, 1, p. 129.) 

Out of the peristyle three gates of black granite open into a 
spacious saloon, whose roof was supported by sixty pillars in ten 
rows, each six pillars deep ; four of these rows are still standing. 
The saloon was divided into three compartments and we may form 
some idea of the awful extent ot the whole by knowing, that the 
pillars of the middle division (the others are a little smaller), are 
thirty-five feet high and above six feet in diameter. Out of this 
large saloon there is an entrance into a second and afterwards into 
a third. In each are eight pillars of the same size still standing. 

From the traces still remaining this huge buildingmusthave been 
even larger than as above indicated. But, however, it may excite 
our wonder, as a monument of architecture, it is not less admirable 
on account of the sculpture with which its walls are covered. 
These consist partly of sacred pictures with hieroglyphics, partly of 
historical reliefs. The former, as usual, represent deities, with 
sacrifices and offerings made to them ; but the latter demand a more 
accurate description. It will be seen what reason we had to regret 
that such a small part of them as well as of the whole building 
should have been preserved. 

The first of these reliefs is found on the inner side of the first of 
the two great pylons. It represents war and battles. The infantry, 
in close columns, advance with their leader, a man of large size, in 
his chariot at their head. The heat of the battle is next portrayed; 
the leaders in their chariots driving into the midst of the enemy; 
the slain, the wounded and the flying with their steeds. In the 
center of the battlefield is a river, into which those fleeing leap, 
whilst their party stand on the opposite bank ready to receive 
them. 

On the left side of the pylon the chief hero sits on a beautifully 
decorated chair, his foot resting on a stool, on which prisoners are 
represented. The cushions of the seat and stool are covered with the 
finest material and dotted with stars. A column of twenty-one 
tigures in long garments approach him supplicatingly and rever- 
entially. These are closely followed by chariots and warriors' with 
large shields. The army to which they belong is in the rear, con- 
sisting of infantry and chariots with one soldier in each. Next 
follows the baggage, which, though attacked by the enemy, is 
bravely defended. • 



REPRESENTATIONS ON THE WALLS. 101 

On the walls of the peristyle scenes equally remarkable are dis- 
played. Here is another battle scene. It seems like a hostile in- 
vasion which is repelled. A river with its many windings traverses 
the field; remains of the blue color with which it was painted 
are still seen in many places. It flows round a castle, the ob- 
ject of contention on both its banks. The possessors of the 
castle are crossing the river. They have long beards and gar- 
ments and war chariots with three men in each. The Egyptians 
on the opposite side, partly on foot and partly in chariots, are led 
by their king ; they are divided into different bodies, each with a 
separate commander, distinguishable by being taller, at tlieir head. 
They beat down all before them and trample on the dead and 
wounded. Many of the enemy iu their retreat are drowned in 
attempting to recross the river; they are pursued by the victors. 

The storming and capture of a fortress is represented on the walls 
of that large hall. This is probably the continuation of the fore- 
going subject. At the foot of the wall is a kind of testudo, formed 
of large shields. Behind or under it are the warriors, of whom 
only the feet are visible. A scaling ladder is fixed up which sol- 
diers are climbing. Of the four stories of the fort the first is 
already scaled. The struggle goes on hotly ; the besieged hurl 
down stones and burning substances. The issue, now, is no longer 
doubtful ; and the banner hoisted up, pierced through with arrows, 
is probably the sign of surrender. The action of one of the war- 
riors here is very expressive, he himself breaking his arrow across 
his knees. If the remaining part of the palace were still standing 
it is most likely there would still be found the triumphal procession 
of the victor ; and if this palace be really that of Osyuiandyas, 
described by Diodorus, the yet more interesting scene, the high 
court of ju-tice of Egypt, with the chief judge presiding, having 
the symbol of truth upon his breast. 

The French think they have recovered the monument iu those 
buildings, which have by others, misled by a false reading of the 
text of Diodorus, been frequently taken for that of the Mem- 
nonium. This their view has the support of the statement of Dio- 
dorus that at ten stadia distant were the tombs of the virgins 
devoted to Amnion. Tombs are, indeed, found at this distance, 
which will agree with this statement, and have not the appearance 
of private buildings. Respecting those virgins or hierodules of 
Amnion, who in after ages were allowed to marry, the principal 
passage is found iu Strabo. 



102 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

No King Osymandyas is mentioned either by Herodotus or Man- 
etho ; nor has the name been yet discovered in any inscription ; but 
the royal legend of Sesostris, or Rameses the great, is everywhere 
displayed on the monuments ascribed to him. The subjects, like- 
wise, of all the reliefs, the battles, triumphs, etc., constantly refer 
to him. Even the lion, which is said to have attended him, is seen 
on his war chariot as an ornament, in this respect much as it ap- 
pears in connection with the chariot of the Assyrian kings, on the 
slabs from Koyunjik and Nineveh. And to whom will the in-, 
scription, quoted by Diodorus, "I am Osymandyas, the King of 
Kings. He who wishes to know how great I was and where I rest, 
let him surpass my works," apply so well as to this very remark- 
able Egyptian character? It has been suggested that Osymandyas 
may have been a name of the great Rameses, as the name of Seos- 
tris was or that it might have been his name as a hero. It is con- 
sidered as highly probable that his deeds are represented here, 
although a portion of the building may have belonged to a period 
prior to his. The proofs, however, which might arise from going 
into a minute comparison of the sculptures with the descriptions of 
Diodorus it is impossible to give here, as in the great work upon 
Egypt very few sculptures are engraved and there is nothing we 
have to avail us in the matter, excepting the accounts of the French 
and some more recent. 

In the space between these immense edifices and the Libyan 
mountain chain stands the temple of Isis, which although smaller, 
is still highly deserving of attention from its fine preservation. In 
this may be seen in its fullest splendor the effects of the colors 
with which the reliefs are painted. Moreover, the narrower dimen- 
sions of the building enables the beholder to take in the whole at a 
glance by which he is better able to judge of the impressions made 
by these embellishments. All the reliefs here refer to religious 
subjects. The most remarkable among them is a judgment upon 
the dead, exactly as it is found painted upon the mummies. It 
seems probable that this temple served also as a sepulchre. 

Going north from this monument the traveler finds himself in 
the midst of an alley of pedestals, occasionally interrupted, but im- 
mediately after resumed. A more accurate examination has shown 
that this was formerly an avenue of sphinxes two hundred in 
number and of a colossal size, the pedestals being six feet wide and 
twelve feet long. The breadth of the alley runs to forty feet ; 
the distance of the statues from each other being seven feet. 



THE PALACE OF GOHNOU. 103 

What must the building have been to which such an alley led ! 
Immense ruins of pylons, of walls and of steps are met with, but 
nothing entire. There is a remarkable stone vault in the form of 
an arch, without as has been shown by a closer examination being 
one. If the ancient Egyptians were acquainted with the proper 
arch, as I have no doubt they were, they did not use it in these 
kind of buildings. 

The palace of Gornou or Kornou still remains upon this west- 
ern side of the Nile pertaining to Thebes. It is not one of the 
largest or most splendid edifices of the royal city, but it is far too 
large to allow that an idea should be entertained that it was a 
private dwelling. It was no temple, but seems to have been of a 
middle or general character between those imperial palaces and 
private dwellings. Neither sphinxes nor obelisks nor stupendous 
pylons nor colonnades are here met with. The whole seems calcu- 
lated for habitation. A portico, one hundred and fifty feet long, 
supported by ten columns, forms the principal entrance, and is 
still almost entire. From the portico three doors lead into the 
interior of the building. The principal and most central door 
opens into a vestibule, supported by six pillars, and from this pas- 
sages run off into many chambers and offices. The door to the 
left in the portico leads likewise into a saloon, and this again into 
many chambers with courts and cabinets on the side. The same 
seems to have been the case in passing through the door to the 
right, but everything here is much dilapitated; so that the whole 
building appears to have consisted of three independent divisions, 
which were, nevertheless, connected by their opening into the 
great portico in front. The conclusion of explorers generally, who 
have been unable to detect any religious or historical scenes or 
hierogliphycal pictures on the walls is that if it were not a royal 
residence it must have been the private residence of some great 
official of the kingdom ; but it is evident that those who hold this 
view differ from Dr. Richardson (Modern. Traveler, vol. vi. p. 8(3) 
who, as far as I know, stands alone in saying that, " this building 
has by some travelers been called a palace, but it is ornamented 
with sculpture and hieroglyphics in the same manner as the other 
temples ; and from the frequent occurrence of the rain's head upon 
the walls, both among the sculptures and the hieroglyphics, it 
would appear that Jupiter Ammon was the principal object of 
worship in this as well as in the great temples." So far a3 to the 
Theban monuments on the western side. 



104 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



The Theban Monuments on the Eastern Side of the Nile. 

If from the western side of the river we now pass over to the east- 
ern side we shall find it equally rich in those stupendous monuments 
which we find to be so characteristic of Tbebes. On this side, how- 
ever, they are situated partly close to the river and partly at some dis- 
tance from it, though less than that on the western side. Between 
the river and the eastern mountain-chain, a wide almost wholly un- 
cultivated plain extends, nearly five miles square, which is supposed 
to have been once covered with private habitations and formed a part 
of the ancient city. The monuments still left are named after their 
villages, Luxor to the south, and Karnac to the north. 

Beginning with those on the south we find the ruins of Luxor 
are situated upon an artificial elevation, fenced with brick- work, 
from nine to ten feet high, immediately upon the Nile; it is up- 
wards of two thousand feet in length and above a thousand in 
breadth. The more northern portico is partly covered with the 
village of Luxor; the southern part is more open, but it is on the 
northern side that the great entrance to the principal building is 
found. Two of the most beautiful obelisks in the world adorned 
the front of this; they are of red granite and above eighty feet 
high. Their upper surface is not completely flat, but a little con- 
vex, doubtless so formed designedly and probably on account of 
the effect of light ; for it is a principle in optics that a completely 
flat surface does not appear such. Other obelisks do not present 
this peculiarity and so it is thought that from this might be de- 
duced their relative ages. 

Behind the obelisks two sitting colossal statues, present them- 
selves, each upon a block of black and red granite of Syene. They 
are half buried and have been broken by violence. They are each 
forty feet high. Their head dress has many peculiarities, they 
have, also, collars. Hamilton conjectures them to represent male 
and female. There is reason to believe that two similar colossi 
stood in the interior, as the head of one has been discovered. 

Close behind these two statues is one of those immense pylons 
with its two pyramidal masses, fifty-two feet in height, enclpsing 
the principal gate. Both on account of its size and its ornamenta- 
tion this pylon is highly deserving of attention. Representations 
of war scenes are sculptured on both wings; on the eastern is seen 
a number of warriors in their chariots, each drawn by two horses. 



LUXOR AND KAKNACo 105 

They rush over a river or canal in pursuit of a fleeing enemy. The 
king, mounted on his chariot, ia at their head with a bow in his 
hand. Higher up is seen a camp and tents. Upon the left wing 
the king is seen in his car mustering the bound captives. Near to 
this is portrayed a triumphal procession with offerings and gifts 
presented to the gods. 

Among all the great historical reliefs this is considered the most 
worthy of attention on account of the perfection of t-he execution 
and expression : " The moment chosen for the representation of 
the battle is that when the troops of the enemy are driven back 
upon the fortress and the Egyptians in the full career of victory 
will soon be masters of the citadel." 

"The conqueror, behind whom is borne aloft the royal standard, 
is of a colossal size, that is, far larger than any of the other war- 
riors, standing up in a car drawn by two horses. He is in the act 
of shooting an arrow from a bow, which is full stretched. There 
is a great deal of life and spirit in the form and attitude of the 
horses, which are in full gallop, feathers waving over their heads 
and the reins lashed round the body of the conqueror. Under the 
wheels of the car and under the horses hoofs and bellies are crowds 
of dying and slain ; some stretched on the ground, others falling. 
On the enemy's side horses in full speed with empty cars ; others 
heedless of the rein and all at last rushing liPidlong down a pre- 
cipice into a broad and deep river, which washes the walls of the 
town. The expression is exceedingly good, and nowhere has the 
artist shown more skill than in two groups ; in one of which the 
horses arrived at the brink of the precipice instantly fall down ; 
and the driver clinging with one hand to the car, the reins and 
whip falling from the other, his body trembling with despair, is 
about to be hurled over the backs of the horses. In the other, the 
horses still find a footing on the side of the hill and are hurrying 
forward their drivers to inevitable destruction. Behind this scene 
of strife the two lines of the enemy join their forces and attack in 
a body the army of the Egyptians, which advances to meet them 
in a regular line. Besides, the peculiarities of the incidents re- 
corded in this interesting piece of sculpture we evidently trace a 
distinction between the short dresses of the Egyptians and the long 
robes of their oriental enemies ; the uncovered and covered heads ; 
the different forms of the cars, of which the Egyptian carried two 
the others three warriors; and, above all, the difference of the 
arms, the Egyptian shield being square at one end and round at the 



106 CREATOR AXD COSMOS. 

other, their arms a bow and arrows. The enemy's shield, on the 
contrary, is round ; their infantry are armed with spears, their 
charioteers with short javelins." 

" At one extremity of the west wing of the gateway the begin- 
ing of this engagement appears to be represented ; the same mon- 
arch being seen at the head of his troops advancing against the 
double line of the enemy and first breaking their ranks. At the 
other extremity of the same wing the conqueror is seated on his 
throne alter the victory, holding a sceptre in his left hand and en- 
j'03'ing the cruel spectacle of eleven of the principal chieftains among 
his captives, lashed together in a row with a rope about their necks; 
the foremost stretches out his arms for pity ; close to him is the 
twelfth on his knees, just going to be put to death by the hand of 
two executioners. Among them is the captive sovereign tied, with 
his hands behind him, to a car, to which two horses are harnessed ; 
these are checked by an attendant from rushing onward, until the 
monarch shall mount and drag behind him the unfortunate victims 
of his triumphs. There is then the conqueror's camp, round which 
is placed his treasures and where the servants are preparing a ban- 
quet to celebrate his victory." (Hamilton, p. 115, sqq.) 

Through the grand entrance the explorer enters an immense 
colonnade surrounded with galleries. This is now occupied with 
the village of Luxor, and the earth is so risen that the columns and 
colossal statues do but jut out above it. A second pylon leads into 
a second colonnade and this into many saloons and apartments, 
which cannot be understood without a plan. Some idea of the 
magnitude of this edifice may be formed from the fact that each of 
the forty columns in the second colonnade is forty-five feet high. 
The great palace of Luxor is not built after a single plan. The 
whole of this immense pile is divided into three parts, which have 
different sites. The hinder part of the fabric (the great hall of 
granite and its surrounding buildings) was perhaps built first. At 
a later period the second colonnade was erected. A still more 
magnanimous or magnificent momu - ch added the first great colon- 

DO O 

nade, with the pylons, obelisks and colossal statues, that is, if these 
latter were not the work of a fourth. It is only remarkable that 
the site of these parts of the buildings should have been changed 
without necessity. It seems, however, to be explained by the 
situation of the buildings of Luxor opposite those of Karnac, with 
which they were placed in connection. 

About 6,100 feet south of those ruins are discovered the traces of 



MONUMENTS OF KARNAC. 107 

the smaller race-course or that on the eastern side ; but it is likely 
that both these race-courses were without the city limits, if per- 
chance, as in modern cities, there were then a corporate limit. 

At about a mile and a half or two miles north of Luxor and about 
a mile from the Nile lies the monuments of Karnac. These are con- 
sidered by connoisseurs, the French literati among others, as the 
most remarkable monuments of ancient Thebes. They are built 
upon an artificial elevation, fenced by a wall of brick-work, being 
in those respects like the others. The walls of Karnac are in extent 
around somewhat over three miles. The monuments consist of 
numerous massive piles of various kinds ; among which, on arriv- 
ing from Luxor, the immense palace of Karnac first presents itself. 
The facade of this prodigious fabric faces the river, from which 
there is an avenue of the colossal Crio-Sphinxes, that is, Sphinxes 
with a lion's body and ram's head, leading to it. Some of these 
colossi still remain ; they lie together, their fore legs stretched out 
before them. This magnificent avenue leads to the great pylon, 
with the principal entrance, which seems never to have been com- 
pleted. The principal entrance was above sixty-five feet high, and 
had formerly bronze doors on each wing. This pylon forms one 
side of the great open colonnade into which the traveler enters 
through it. The columns which border this on the north and south 
sides are forty-two feet high ; the series of the north consisting of 
eighteen of those columns, still remains. The southern series is 
broken by a temple, which leans as a subordinate building against 
the palace, whose principal entrance isout of this colonnade. This 
open colonnade is, however, only a kind of vestibule to the grand 
hall of columns or covered saloon, which of all that now remains of 
Egyptian construction is represented as the most stupendous and 
sublime A flight of twenty-seven steps leads into it through an 
ante-chamber and another pylon. Everything here is colossal. So 
spacious is this saloon that the largest church in Paris might stand 
whole within it, its area being fully forty-seven thousand square feet. 
The ceiling, consisting of unhewn blocks of stone, is supported by 134 
columns. Each column of the two central rows, which are a little 
higher than the others, measures 65 feet in height, 10 feet in 
diameter and 30 feet in circumference. The whole, from top to 
bottom is ornamented with sculpture relating to religious subjects. 
The procession of the holy ark is many times repeated, 'particularly 
on the walls. So great, however, is the number of those sculptures 
that no one as yet has succeeded in reckoning them up, much less 



108 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

in copying them. "No description," says an eye-witness, "can 
adequately express the sensations inspired by this astonishing sight, 
in which the magnificence and might of ancient rulers of Egypt are 
made perceptible to the eye. Of what deeds, of what events now 
lost to the history of the world, of what scenes have these columns 
formerly been the witnesses ! Can it be doubted that this was the 
spot where these rulers of the nations of the east and of the west 
exhibited themselves in their glory and power ; that this was the 
spot to which those nations brought their presents and their trib- 
ute?" 

From this stupendous saloon a new pylon leads into a second 
open colonnade, with two magnificent obelisks ; and behind this 
come the buildings which seem intended for the proper dwelling 
saloons and numerous apartments are here formed entirely of gran- 
ite. Domestic scenes are sometimes displayed on the wall, as in the 
chambers of the dead, and certain religious representations, among 
which the initiations of the kings by the priests is not to be mis- 
taken. In many of these reliefs the colors are still as fresh as 
ever. 

This place is besides adorned with great historical reliefs, which 
it would be unjust to pass over in silence. They are found on the 
exterior of the palace walls and represent skirmishes, battles and 
military expeditions. They are divided into four compartments: 
in the first is the Egyptian hero when he kills the hostile leader ; in 
the second is the retreat of the enemy toward the stronghold ; in 
the third the triumph of the king with the prisoners before him ; 
and in the fourth, the king when he again delivers up his weapons 
to Osiris and presents to him the captives. The interpretation of 
this there stated, namely, that it represents the deliverance of 
Egypt from the Hykshas, is likewise adopted by the French lit- 
erati. As a great part of the building now lies in ruins some of the 
representations are, of course, disappeared, but sufficient are left 
to prove that they formed one series. The king is seen in his char- 
iot in pursuit of the enemy, who, with their herds, flee to the 
woods and marshes. The river is depicted, as well as the fortress, 
which is captured. The conquered come out of the woods and sur- 
render to the king. The latter is portrayed in many engagements, 
so that the whole history of the war was probably pictured and after- 
wards the triumph, the captives and the offering made to the gods. 
As, however, many of these are now decayed and many of them 



VIEWS AT KARNAC. 109 

which still exist are not copied it would be a fruitless undertaking *o 
attempt to arrange them. The particular figures are full of ex- 
pression, yet the whole has a strange appearance and seems to indi- 
cate the infancy of the art. The drapery of the two armies is 
everywhere accurately distinguished. The opponents of the Egyp- 
tians are here uniformly represented with beards and long gar- 
ments and with shields of different forms than that of the Egyptians. 
The costume of the enemy is here very different from that of 
the enemy at Medinet Abou ; they must, therefore, have been of 
different nations. 

Immediately connected with this palace is a temple, which though 
ranking among the smaller ones is yet remarkable from the place 
it occupies ; for it is so built in the great colonnade of the palace 
that the forepart of it stands therein and its principal entrance is 
out of it. It is arranged in the same order and has much the same 
ornaments as the other temples, but all in a smaller proportion. It 
is, with some probability, thought to have been the household 
chapel of the monarch, who resided in the palace, in which he might 
perform his devotions and practice the ceremonies of his religion 
without leaving his dwelling. 

Very different from this, as well as from the palace, is the great 
temple, lying in a direction southwardly from the latter. Egyp- 
tian constructive genius here did marvels in order to appear in its 
most sublime magnitude near the palace. Four of those often de- 
scribed pylons here form the entrance, which contains the same 
number of spacious colonnades. In these are still standing twelve 
colossal statues, each formed of one piece ; and the number of 
these 'must have been far greater, as the remains of nineteen can 
still be traced. The great temple itself is one of the best pre- 
served monuments at Karnac. Its principal entrance looks south, 
so that it almost exactly faces the entrance of the palace at 
Luxor. The southern gateway of this temple is one of the most 
lofty and magnificent; it is not, however, as is usually the case, 
attended by a propylon, but stands alone. The height of this 
gateway is somewhat over sixty-two feet. It is built of sand- 
stone and adorned in the richest maimer with sculpture. This 
gateway leads into a gallery of colossal rams, twenty-two in num- 
ber, which indicated to the pilgrim that he was drawing nigh to 
the temple of Amtnon, yet 130 feet distant. The gateway, com- 
pletely isolated, was probably a later building, because the entrance 



110 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



to the temple again forms one of those pylons, so often described, 
before which are seen the remains of colossal statues, and which 
again leads into an open colonnade and this again into a saloon of 
columns. The A'hjtuni is immediately behind this and then other 
saloons and departments. 

This temple is supposed to be one of the most ancient now exist- 
ing in Egypt, and yet it affords a farther confirmation of the opin- 
ion, to which the examination of the palace gives rise, namely, that 
both were partly built of the materials of more ancient edifices, 
which were ornamented with the same hieroglyphics, the same col- 




avenue of the Kams at Karnsc (restored) 



ors and just as well finished sculptures as the present temples. To 
what interesting and varied contemplations on the antiquity of the 
arts and the civilization connected therewith in the Nile's valley do 
those observations lead ! 

Exactly opposite to this large temple of Karnac is another one 
still remaining, one of smaller dimensions, but whose sculptures 
are to be classed with the most highly finished. It seems to have 
been of later erection than the larger one. 

The group of antiquities of Karnac are situated at somewhat 
over a mile and a quarter from those of Luxor, for this is about the 
distance measured from the northern entrance of the palace of 



COLOSSAL SPHINXES. Ill 

Luxor and the great gate of the large temple at Karnac. Egyp- 
tian art has, however, connected those groups with each other, by 
an avenue of colossal sphinxes, which leads from one to the other, 
and, as it approaches Karnac, again divides into numerous alleys. 
All these sphinxes are from twelve to eighteen feet long ; they are 
partly lions couchant, with rams' heads, these being the largest; 
partly with women's heads, and partly with rams couchant. No 
alley, however, consists of more than one kind of sphinx. Many 
of them still remain entire ; of others half and of many only the 
pedestals are left ; but the nearer they are to Karnac the more per- 
fect they become, while the fragments scattered about still prove 
sufficiently their whole magnitude. The largest and principal 
avenue must alone have contained more than six hundred of those 
colossal sphinxes ; and the whole, it is thought, amounted to far 
more than double this number. Those which still remain are of 
superior workmanship. The stately repose expressed by their 
posture was well calculated to excite feelings of awe and veneration 
in the pilgrims, who proceeded through this vast avenue from one 
sanctuary to the other or took part in the grand processions of the 
priests as they are represented on the walls. They must also have 
tended to inspire such calm and holy meditation as every one must 
still feel who beholds the remains of those wonderful monuments. 
Beyond these many more remains are traceable. The chain of 
them extends to Medamond, north of the ancient city, at the foot 
of the eastern mountain ridge, where are likewise found the re- 
maius of an ancient smaller temple or palace. " One is fatigued," 
says an eye-witness, " with writing, one is fatigued with reading, 
one is frightened at the idea of so vast a conception ; and even after 
having seen it is difficult to believe in the existence of so many 
buildings united to one point." 

Catacombs — Grottos — Tombs — or Sepulchres. 

The burial places at Thebes, which I find called by all these dif- 
ferent names, are like the monuments very remarkable besides, like 
them, being interesting and instructive. These are all on the west- 
ern side of the river, and, consequently, in the Libyan chain and 
none of them being natural caverns they were all the work of 
human agency. Their position on the western side seems to be 
accounted for by the quality of the stone, that is, limestone, the 
stone on the eastern side being of a much harder consistence. 



112 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

This mountain range is near 300 feet high and rises here so steep 
that there seems to be difficulty in ascending it. A grotto is 
generally understood as somewhat in the nature of a cave, and 
which may serve as a subterranean home for the living instead of 
being the resting place of the dead. The only place called a grotto 
of which ancient Thebes affords an example is situated at about 975 
feet northeast of the palace of Osymandyas, not quite in the moun- 
tain range, but rather in a hill before it. Its front faces the Nile 
and before it is an open area hewn out of the rock, from which the 
explorer passes into a court likewise uncovered. All the rest of 
this is subterraneous. Within are found saloons and chambers of 
various dimensions upon three stories. A staircase of fifty-six steps 
leads from the top to the bottom. The walls are everywhere cov- 
ered with sculpture, which must be ranked with the best and 
most highly finished, notwithstanding the light of day could never 
have penetrated to them. In the pits of this grotto, as well as in 
those of the catacombs, some remains of mummies are certainly to 
be found; but the arrangement of the whole building renders it 
extremely improbable that it should have been intended merely as 
a place of burial. Some Egyptian nobles seem to have had within 
their own dwellings an apartment intended for their own burial 
places, as is supposed to have been the case in the palace of Osy- 
mandyas. This grotto might also have served for the initiation of 
the kings into the mysteries. Situated in the way to the catacombs 
and royal sepulchres it would be difficult to find a place better 
adapted to conduce to a solemn and contemplative frame of mind, 
and so it is thought that it might have been used as a cool retreat 
from the summer heat. 

The so-called catacombs are not peculiar to Thebes, every Egypt- 
ian city having had its own ; those of Memphis are found at Sac- 
cara. But as the royal capital of Egypt did not exhibit a greater 
excellence in her temples and palaces above ground than she did in 
those subterranean caverns and tombs for her people and kings, 
in no other part of Egypt are they found so numerous nor executed 
with an equal degree of skill and attention. They bear witness as 
well as the architectural wonders to the fact that the ancient The- 
baid was the country where civilization, such as they had in Egypt, 
was carried to the highest perfection. 

Beginning in the Libyan mountain chain where it approaches the 
nearest to Medinet Abou and Gornou the catacombs extend about 
four or five miles in length. The steep ridge, near three hundred 



CATACOMBS AT THEBES. 113 

feet high, affords ample room for those burial places, which rise in 
tiers one above the other. The lowest, in which the rich sought to 
find their long resting places, are the most spacious and beautiful; 
the higher we ascend the poorer they become. The more roomy 
and splendid have an open vestibule before the entrance, but the 
greater number have merely doors. The lower passages to which 
they lead run sometimes in a horizontal direction, at other times 
downwards, sometimes straight, at other times winding. They lead 
at one time into saloons and apartments of various characters, and 
at others intc pits of which the explorer must be on his guard. 
Many are connected together and form a labyrinth from which it 
is often difficult for one to find one's way out. In the lai'ge 
caverns are found saloons twelve or fifteen feet high, supported by 
rows of pillars ; and behind them is a smaller apartment, with a 
sort of platform up four steps. In the background is a human 
figure in a sitting posture, hewn in high relief and frequently 
accompanied by two females. Upon the side of the wall are gal- 
leries, in which are the mummy pits from nine to twelve feet wide 
and from forty to fifty deep. There has nowhere been discovered 
any trace of steps descending into them. Some of the catacombs 
are more regularly formed than others. The earth is strewed over 
with mummies and fragments of mummies, which have fallen or 
been turned out of their cases ; so that the explorer has, as it were, 
to wade through them ; and among them are found amulets, idols 
and other relics of antiquity. These catacombs are now the habi- 
tation of the bats and the Arabs, equally to be feared by the ex- 
plorer; the former, because their wings may extinguish the light ; 
the latter because of their thievish propensities. Another danger 
equally great menaces the industrious explorers, arising from the 
inflammability of the mummies. It is only with an artificial light 
of some kind that these gloomy abodes can be visited, and a spark 
might in a moment ignite a brand which would doom the explorer 
to a cruel death. 

The Egyptians who are said to have been certainly ignorant of 
the principles of the arch are found to have often adopted this 
form in their vaults. The ceilings at the entrances and in the front 
corridors are usually arched ; this is, as we shall presently see, 
particularly striking in the case of the royal sepulchres. 

The catacombs are without pillars and generally bear but slight 
resemblance to the buildings above ground. The walls, however, 
are not less richly ornamented. These decorations are composed 
8— b 



114 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

partly of painted reliefs and partly of mere paintings in fresco. 
The representations on the walls are always pictures, bounded by 
straight lines, in which the reliefs are finished with great perfec- 
tion. In many of them complete figures are only two inches high 
and the hieroglyphics which accompany them only four lines. The 
subjects consist of various affairs of common life ; sometimes what 
we would call shop business, such as the weighing of goods ; a 
feast at which appears the owner of the house, his wife and guests, 
with a richly furnished table; a dance ; a hunting scene ; the labors 
of the husbandman, the vintage ; the navigation of the Nile ; mu- 
sical instruments, the harp, the lute, flutes ; wild and domestic ani- 
mals, etc. The ceilings have no ornaments in sculpture, but are 
merely painted in fresco ; they are considered the more worthy of 
attention as the Egyptian artist here abandoned himself entirely to 
his fancy, as the moderns do in arabesque work. All this splendid 
workmanship must have been executed with an artificial light and 
could only have been seen again by the same means. 

Those sepulchral chambers, besides the various pictorial repre- 
sentations referred to, contain, also, some remains of ancient liter- 
ature In the mummies have been found many rolls of papyrus, 
and especially one great roll, which measured twenty-eight feet in 
length. This relic contains upwards of 30,000 characters, in 515 
columns, and is written partly in hieroglyphic and partly in alpha- 
betic characters. This interesting relic has, therefore, offered an 
interesting field for the study of such enterprising geniuses, as 
were interested in Egyptian antiquities. Here as well as in Baby- 
lon have bricks with impressed inscriptions been found ; the char- 
acters on them, however, are not letters but hieroglyphics, which 
seem to have been stamped with a wooden block. 

The situation and disposition of the royal sepulchres are mark- 
edly different from those of the tombs of the people. Those are 
located in the interior of the Libyan Mountains, and in visiting 
them from Gornou the explorer has to go a distance of about three 
miles through a narrow mountain pass to the entrance of the valley 
containing them. The defile which leads to them had originally 
no outlet, and it is found to have been opened from the background 
by manual labor. A way hewn in the rocks conducts to a narrow 
pass, which forms the entrance to the valley containing these royal 
sepulchres. The valley here expands into two branches, one 
towards southeast and the other southwest. It must have been 
before the erection of these sepulchres altogether inaccessible. 



CATACOMBS AXD TOMBS. 115 

There appears here no sign of vegetation; steep and rugged rocks 
enclose it on every side ; all around is the image of death. The 
heat softened by no cooling breeze and intensified by the sun's 
scotching rays from the rocks and sand becomes so intense that no 
human being could endure it, were it not for the shelter offered by 
the catacombs. Two of the companions of Gen. Desaix were here 
suffocated . 

In Strabo's time there were about forty of those tombs ; but the 
entrances to many of them are now blocked up by fragments of 
rock, which have fallen down ; and thus their contents may be pre- 
served uninjured to future ages. Of those that have been opened 
the general appearance is similar, although they are not exactly 
alike; in their size and embellishments they differ. The depth 
varies from fifty to 3(30 feet. Some are entirely covered with orna- 
ments and excellently finished ; upon others the work had been 
scarcely begun. 

Each of these sepulchral caverns forms a suit of corridors, 
chambers and apartments, in which there is generally one principal 
saloon. A kind of mound or elevation is usually found in this, 
upon which stands the sarcophagus, containing the remains of the 
king, or intended for that. Out of twelve tombs that had been 
opened six still possessed their sarcophagi or some portion of them ; 
from others they had wholly disappeared. That found in the 
largest sepulchre, called by the French the harp-tomb, from two 
harpers having been represented therein, is twelve feet long and 
formed of red granite ; upon being struck with a hammer it sounds 
like a bell. The principal apartment in this room is vaulted and 
supported by eight pillars. The explorer has to push through ten 
doors before he reaches the sarcophagus; but however securely the 
monarch who here rests may have imagined he had provided for the 
quiet repose of his remains, they have not escaped the human lust 
for plunder. 

Several mummies are found in the chamber next the principal 
door, which has caused investigators to conclude that besides the 
king those who had been about his person while living again be- 
came so associated with him after death. 

The sculpture and painting, which everywhere here covers the 
walls^owing to the nature of the stone, could not have been 
wrought, as in the palaces, upon the rock itself; but the walls are 
plastered over with a kind of mortar, upon which the sculpture and 
paintings are executed. Of the subjects of the embellishments in 



11(3 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

this tomb many are religious offerings and sacrifices ; and among 
the latter human beings are thought to appear. Those who appear 
to be sacrificed are all negroes ; but it is not certain that their 
deaths were not merely in the way of the execution of criminals or 
prisoners, which iu the case of the latter was but too common ! 
But, besides religious rites there are found here, just where such 
would have been least expected to occur, representations of battles 
both on land and on water; the slaying of captives, etc. These 
scenes of blood and turmoil being portrayed in the stillness and 
sanctity of the tomb, prove to the antiquarian explorer that these 
sepulchres were intended for none but kings. There is, moreover, 
so much represented here pertaining to every-day life as cannot fail 
to give us some idea of the luxury of the nation and of the high 
degree of perfection to which the art had attained among them. 
Belzoni with much labor opened one of the tombs, which had re- 
mained closed till his time and discovered what far surpassed his 
expectations. What had been executed perhaps three thousand 
years ago appeared as fresh and uninjured as though it were just 
turned out of the hands of the artist. Corridor after corridor, 
chamber after chamber were found ; and when, at last, the principal 
apartment%was opened to the explorer he discovered that wonderful 
piece of art, nothing like which had been before found, namely, a 
sarcophagus of the purest oriental alabaster, nine feet nine inches 
in length and five feet seven inches broad. It is semi-transparent 
and covered both within and without with figures, which seem to 
relate to funeral rites. It is now in the British Museum. But 
even the few historical reliefs which have been copied from the 
walls contain much information both of a physiological and a his- 
torical nature. On these we see three different races of men rep- 
resented, the black, the tawny and the white, who are distinguished 
by their color and their features. The scene represented is rather 
of a peaceful character than warlike. The King appears in regal 
grandeur; the ambassadors of different nations approach him to 
render him homage and tribute. In their national dress and in a 
dignified manner they appear as performing a stately ceremony, not 
as captives. The plates here are Belzoni's and in them is shown 
what the aid of the artist can avail in rendering these pictures un- 
derstandable, a proper notion of them not being able to be con- 
veyed by verbal description alone. 

In the first we see the kinsr on his throne with the regalia about 
him, the sceptre in his hand, a golden chain about his neck and a 



PICTORIAL REPRESENTATIONS IN TOMBS. 117 

votive tablet. In the two following plates and especially the third 
are given in two ovals his name and title, surrounded by guardian 
gods. Each of the embassies is made up of four men. First the 
tawny or brown-red appears, led by a priest with the sparrow- 
hawk's head. They are by some called Egyptians, because they 
have the color of that people, but their dress and hair indicate 
them to be Nubians. They are naked, except round the middle, 
where they have a fine white garment; the Nubians still frequently 
wear a similar one. They have the thick Nubian hair and the 
head-dress of that nation. We need not be surprised to see them 
introduced by an Egyptian priest, as the Egyptian religion prevailed 
in Nubia. Four white men next appear and at a glance the Jewish 
plysiognomy is recognized in them. "Their national features," 
says Mintonli (Travels, p. 271), "are thrown together with so 
much comic humor that it would be difficult for a modern artist to 
do anything more perfectly." " They may," says Heeren (Re- 
searches, etc.), "be considered as representing the Syrians and 
Phoenicians in general; whose physiognomy probably differed but 
slightly from that of the Jews." He might have said distinctively 
the Arabians, Phoenicians, Assyrians and Syrians as like the 
Hebrews, with other peoples more or less approximating in plysiog- 
nomy. Next come the black plenipotentiaries, who are likewise 
four in number. They also appear lightly clad but evidently for a 
stately occasion. A curiously- wrought ornament hangs over the 
right shoulder, which serves to keep up the fine white garment 
that surrounds the waist. Their thick woolly hair seems to be 
sprinkled with gold or silver dust. The magnificence of their 
dress and ornamentation makes the fourth embassy from a white 
nation most remarkable of all. They are distinguished by a head- 
dress of feathers, with a lock of hair hanging down ; and by their 
long, white, embroidered garments of a very fine texture. If we 
here consider what Herodotus (1, 195) says of the dresses of the 
Babylonians, we may be induced to conclude those ambassadors as 
such ; the more so as their physiognomy and beards are evidently 
Asiatic. The Pharaoh whose remains were deposited here had un- 
doubtedly dominion over foreign nations and some give their reason 
for concluding him to have been Amenophis II. 

" It is in the sepulchres," says G. A. Hoskins (in speaking of 
his visit to the tombs of Beni Hassan, in 18H3) " that we see an 
epitome of ancient Egyptian life ; there are displayed their knowl- 
edge, their tastes, their pursuits, their habits, their pleasures. 



118 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Elsewhere the tombs are often from their closeness and ruined 
state unpleasant to visit ; but these tombs of Beni Hassan are open 
to the Nile's breezes and no drawback of any kind diminishes the 
pleasure of the excursion. 

" Then it must not be forgotten that these tombs are far more 
ancient than any antiquities farther up the river ; that some of them 
bear the name of Osirtasen I., who is supposed to have reigned 
2,000 years B. C, and, as Wilkinson very correctly states, many of 
them are obviously in the architectural imitation of the then existing 
buildings. From the perfection of the architecture and the excel- 
lent execution, throughout the best, of some of the tombs and 
paintings, art was obviously then very far from being in its in- 
fancy ; and we cannot, without wonder as well as pleasure, study 
those very early pages of the history of the civilization of the 
world. They do not, as in other tombs and temples, give us rep- 
resentations of the theocracy and mysterious rites which the 
learned can scarcely yet understand. All that time has spared 
here is interesting in the extreme, for it is a picture of the Egyptian 
people and their governors." 

I will here give a passing review of the author's general descrip- 
tion of the tombs of Beni Hassan, which wili be found to be 
exceedingly interesting. 

These tombs are situated at about a mile's distance from the 
boat landing on the Nile, at certain stages of the water's height. 
These tombs are very conspicuous from the river and the plain, 
are all excavated in the rock, and all nearly on the same level. 
Beginning his description from the southern end the author finds a 

Oct i 

group of tombs without sculpture; the second tomb, being con- 
nected by a doorway with the first, has an arch-shaped portico, 
decorated with two polygonal columns ; it appeared also to have 
been decorated with two columns with circular bases. 

Passing two or three others he came to what he called the third 
of the principal group, which contained an injured figure and a pit 
for mummies. In the fourth tomb he found representations of 
figures wrestling, an ox, gazelles, a sportsman, and a long tablet of 
hieroglyphics before the great man of the place. In the fifth tomb 
he found no paintings, but the architecture in good condition. 
Here two injured but elegant columns, formed, as it were, of four 
light stems of trees bound together, with lotus-bud shaped capi- 
tals, support a graceful pediment. The sixth contained a pit for 
mummies but the paintings were not distinguishable. The eighth 



TOMBS OF BENI HASSAN. 119 

and ninth tombs are not worth investigating, but in the tenth a 
a pretty ornament of the blue and crimson lotus and some offerings 
still appear. The eleventh not worth entering ; but in the twelfth 
are a few figures, drawing along a shrine, and others presenting 
offerings of geese, etc. Among the figures the great man of the 
place is usually traceable. How this tomb had formerly been dec- 
orated is shown by the fragments of columns still adheringto the roof. 

Passing two very small tombs, he came to the fifteenth, which he 
found to possess very remarkable architecture ; three rows of three 
columns each, with lotus-bud capitals supporting pediments and 
one extra column, on the right side, constituted its decorations. 
The sixteenth, called the wrestler's tomb, from the principal sub- 
ject in it, was decorated with six columns, of which two only re- 
mained. On one of the shafts two of the green bands are seen, and 
on the right-hand corner agricultural scenes and boats. The arched 
roofed granaries with windows are curious; and there were white 
cattle with black spots, droves of other cattle now much injured 
and offerings of fish, fruits and flowers to the great man of the 
place. Wrestlers in every possible position appear upon the east 
side and a long inscription in hieroglyphics. The north side is con- 
spicuous for its representations of trades — glass blowers, gold- 
smiths, blowing the fire for the process of gold-melting, washing, 
weighing and preparing the gold for the jewelers, who are manu- 
facturing ornaments near the man blowing the furnace ; but owing 
to the partial defacement , it was difficult to make out the whole 
meaning. There appeared also hunting scenes of various kinds of 
animals. There are white deer with brown spots ; a man with two 
dogs in a leash ; sportsmen killing wild oxen with bows and arrows ; 
birds in a tree over a group of gazelles ; men catching the wild ox 
with the lasso and gazelles with the noose. The great man of the 
place is seated with his wife under a canopy. Another sportsman 
is killing: deer; and there is a long thin net with gazelles causrht in 
it. A group of women jumping, tumbling, dancing and exhibiting 
their agility in throwing their bodies-into the most extraordinary at- 
titudes is quite spirited and interesting. Others playing at ball, 
throwing up sometimes three in succession, and one group playing 
the game mouuted on the backs of others ; all appear full of life. 
Then there are men dancing on one leg, making Egyptian pirouettes 
and other feats of gymnastics. 

The general subject of this representation and the names of ani- 
mals, birds, etc., are inscribed in hieroglyphics. 



120 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Then there are carpenters sawing, upholsterers veneering and 
making furniture ; potters and other trades, very much defaced. 
Agricultural scenes and pictures of the papyrus plant occur on the 
west side. Over a little door on the southern side is a man receiv- 
ing the bastinado. The punishment of males by means of the bas- 
tinado was not very different from what may now be seen in that 
country when the Katschef or Turkish revenue officer collects his 
payments ; and it is said that the village Sbeakhs are often willing 
to escape payment of a part of their dues by undergoing a punish- 
ment, which, under the present regime, they consider rather more 
of an honor than a disgrace to them. The old Egyptian sufferer is 
here represented lying on his belly, one man holding his two feet 
and another each arm, whilst the executioner, holding with his two 
hands a stick from two to three feet long, is on the point of striking 
his seat. A woman is represented seated on her heels, a fashion, it 
is said, still common in the East and Spain, with one hand to her 
breast, whilst a similar executioner is giving her blows on her 
back. 

Nothing was found in the seventeenth tomb, but the eighteenth 
had been decorated with two columns of which fragments only 
remain. Here also are men receiving the bastinado, various trades 
appearing on the east side and lively wrestling. On the north side 
are women playing at ball and various trades and hunting scenes. 
In the nineteenth tomb nothing appears, but in the twentieth, or 
small tomb, there are hieroglyphics round the door. On the way 
to the northern group (some of which were found to have porticos, 
decorated with columns, the shafts and capitals of which appeared 
obviously the original of the Doric column and the friezes also in 
the Doric style) we passed several little tombs of no interest. 

In this primitive Doric style is the portico to the twenty-first 
tomb, which has its door ornamented with well executed hiero- 
glyphics. This leads into a tomb, which had once been possessed 
of four columns, and having a slightly arched roof. The great 
man of the place with his associates is amusing himself with the 
chase. In his boat, on the east side, he is netting wild fowl, chiefly 
geese. The Nile is represented by waving lines with fish and hip- 
popotami in it. All round this sepulchre there is a long hiero- 
glyphic inscription. On the north side, under two rows of animals, 
is the presentation of thirty-seven strangers of a race called Mes- 
Stem to Nefotph, the great man of the place. This was once be- 
lieved to signify the presentation of Joseph's brethren to Pharaoh, 



KINO OSIRTASEN. 121 

but is now so defaced as to be scarcely recognizable ; but with close 
attention their Asiatic costume, light-yellow complexion, peculiar 
features and beards are believed to be distinguishable. The scribe 
presents the people to the great man. Two of the strangers pres- 
ent their offerings of a wild goat and a gazelle. These are followed 
by four men armed either with bows, clubs or spears ; then follow 
two men, one with a spear, the other with a club, their two children 
apparently very comfortably packed in a gayly-decorated pannier, 
their heads only visible ; then a boy with a spear. Following are 
four women in long dresses, and after them a donkey, with its head 
stooping, as though weary with its load, which, however, seems 
very light. A man follows having the seven- stringed lyre with the 
plectrum, which indicates that the ancient Egyptians were fond of 
music ; and after him a sportsman with his bow, arrow, quiver and 
a club. The men have sandals and the women's boots present 
quite a modern appearance. In the lowest row the cattle are beau- 
tifully drawn. 

" Under the group," says the author, " the nomen and praeno- 
men of King Osirtasen, who reigned about 2,000 years B. C, may 
be seen in the inscription of hieroglyphics, which surrounds the 
sepulchre." 

In the twenty-second tomb are portrayed hunting scenes, sports- 
men with their bows, a long line of gazelles, some as if having only 
one horn; a lion is putting his paw on one. Below these subjects 
appear droves of cattle and men catching the wild ox with the 
lasso, agricultural scenes and trades much defaced. A better and 
clearer representation than that before mentioned is seen here of 
goldsmiths at work, blowing the tire, making a variety of vases 
and weighing them. Wrestlers appear on the east side and a boat 
carrying the mummy of the deceased. On this side, too, in the 
little sanctuary, traces of three sculptured figures appear. On the 
west side are agricultural subjects, potters, ropemakers, women 
playing on harps, and fishing scenes. On the south side are 
representations of rich gifts to the great man of the place and 
his wife. The portico of this sepulchre is somewhat of a counterpart 
of the last described ; and the tomb was also decorated with that 
peculiar kind of column which has been called the origin of the 
Doric order, resting on a circular basis. A beautifully arched roof 
also is here which still retains its decorations. The admiration 
of the art lovers is always excited and interested by the coutem- 



122 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

plation of the simplicity of the architecture and the rich effect of the 
pictorial decorations here. 

After these tombs the author next visited the Speos Artemidos, 
or Cave of Diana, situated at a short distance from the tombs. In 
this cave the first chamber is an open portico, which was divided 
by two rows of pillars, the front row only remaining. On the 
south side of this portico, which was originally left unfinished, 
there is some beautiful sculpture in the best style of Egyptian art, 
and still retaining, especially the hieroglyphics, much of their col- 
oring, representing on the west side King Osiri making offerings 
of incense and ointments to Diana (Pasht) seated on her throne. 
Pasht, her head defaced, is standing in the next picture, and 
the god Thoth is addressing the king. On the eastern side of 
the doorway, leading into the interior, the sculpture is most in- 
jured; but King Osiri, whose praenomen can just be made out, 
is represented on his knees before Amun Ra, and behind him is 
Pasht and a tablet of hieroglyphics, in which the name Thothmes 
just appears. In the corner of this tablet are twelve divinities, 
each representing the cross of life, very much defaced now, but 
some of the names are readable: Mandoo, Atmoo, Tafne, in the 
first row ; Isis, Neith and Seb, in the second; and Athor, Horus 
and Nepthys, in the third. The perfect execution originally of the 
hieroglyphics and the maintenance of their colors make these pict- 
ures very interesting. 

By a deep doorway, ornamented with a long tablet of hiero- 
glyphics and sculpture representing on both sides the king sacri- 
ficing to Pasht, the portico leads into the naos, which was never 
finished ; but close under the roof is a circle, ornamented with the 
Egyptian cornice and some hieroglyphics, bearing the name of 
Osiri ; and on one side of the doorway is a representation of Pasht 
standing with the crux ansata. "Few excursions on the Nile," 
says the author, "are more agreeable than the visit to this interest- 
ing little temple of the Diana of the Egyptians." 

But now, in regard to the general subject of the monuments 
which we have been pursuing, it is confessed on all sides that no 
one as a skillful architect could so intelligently discuss their merits. 
Moreover, astronomical, mathematical, political and musical knowl- 
edge would be equally requisite. But as to the question: To what 
extent are we acquainted with the monuments of ancient Thebes 
after all the light that has been thrown upon them from various 
sources we will allow the French artists to answer somewhat 



MINUTOLI OX THE SCULPTURES. 123 

definitely on this head. "We have been," say they (Description 
de l'Egypt, p. 207), " thrice at Thebes and remained at our second 
and third visits full two months among its ruins. During that time 
no monument was left unexamined. When our plans and sketches 
were quite finished they were again compared with those of the 
architect Le Pere and his assistants, and what are contained in our 
publication are the result of these mutual communications. Future 
travelers may rest assured that, so far as architectural remains are 
concerned and drawings and copies of them, nothing is left to be 
done. A wide field, however, is still open to them if they will 
explore in detail the numerous sculptures with which the buildings 
are covered, particularly the historical bas-reliefs relative to the 
conquests of the ancient rulers of Egypt; or, if they chose, to ex- 
amine the catacombs and cop} - the remarkable bas-reliefs descrip- 
tive of the manners and domestic habits of the ancient Egyptians." 
With the buildings, therefore, which remain of ancient Thebes we 
are tolerably well acquainted, but with the sculptures and paintings 
which decorate them only very partially. The testimony of a late 
explorer, who is reputed to have been an accurate observer, has 
rescued the French artists from a suspicion of having heightened 
the beauty of the originals. In his account of the temple of Den- 
derah Minutoli says: " They may be charged with incorrectness 
and omissions, but we should be unjust in thinking their copies 
beautified. Justice, on the contrary, has not been done to the cor- 
rectness of outline, to the elegance of the decorations, to the soft 
delicacy of the features, to the mildness of expression, nor to the 
lofty repose which seems to reign in every part, and in which 
Egyptian art seems to vie with the Grecian." 

But, at the best, what a faint picture can we nowhave of living 
Thebes ; that is, Thebes in the days of its splendor and glory ! what 
a splendid scene we may conceive to have burst upon the eyes of 
the wanderer, who, emerging from the desert, after having toiled 
up the slopes of the Libyan mountain-chain, suddenly beholds the 
valley of the Nile teeming with fertility, with its numerous towns, 
and, in its center, Thebes, the seat of government and royal 
splendor with its temples, colossi, obelisks and palaces I 

At a distance, as we are, both as to time and space, the first idea 
that presents itself from a view of those monuments, is that Thebes 
must once have been the capital of a mighty empire, whose boun- 
daries extended far beyond Egypt and comprised a good part of 
Africa and Asia. Her kings are represented as conquerors and the 



124 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

scene of their victories is not confined to Egypt, but often carried 
into remote regions. 

By this idea a conviction is produced that a much closer connec- 
tion with and a more accurate knowledge of some nations of the 
southern as well as of the north-eastern world must have existed 
in Egypt than is generally supposed. This must have been so as a 
natuial consequence of the wars and conquests, especially as by 
these an extensive empire and a lasting dominion were soon formed. 

" There is," says A. H. Layard, " no reason why we should not 
assign to Assyria the same remote antiquity we claim for Egypt. 
The monuments of Egypt prove that she did not stand alone in 
civilization and power. At the earliest period we find her contend- 
ing with enemies nearly, if not fully, as powerful as herself ; and 
amongst the spoils from Asia and the articles of tribute, brought 
by subdued nations from the north-east, are vases as elegant in 
shape, stuffs as rich in texture, and chariots as well adapted to war 
as her own. It is not improbable that she herself was indebted to 
the nations of western Asia for the introduction of arts in which 
they excelled and that many things in common use were brought 
from the banks of the Tigris. In fact to reject the notion of the 
existence of an independent kingdom in Assyria, at the very ear- 
liest period would be almost to question whether the country were 
inhabited ; which would be in direct opposition to the united testi- 
mony of Scripture and tradition. A doubt may be entertained as 
to the dynasties and extent of the empire, but not as to its exis- 
tence. That it was not peopled by mere wandering tribes appears 
to be proved by the frequent mention of expeditions against Naha- 
raina (Mesapotamia) on the earliest monuments of Egypt and the 
nature of the spoil brought from that country. Fourteen hundred 
years before Christ Chushan-Rishathaim, a king of Mesopotamia, 
subdued the Israelites ( Judges iii : 8). Other kings were estab- 
lished in the surrounding countries ; all, perhaps, tributary to the 
Assyrians. But Naharania appears to have been the extent of the 
Egyptian conquests, the Egyptian kings being frequently declared 
to have put up the tablets of the boundaries of their empire in that 
country. That the Assyrian kingdom may not have been known 
much beyond its limits until the time of its greatest prosperity, 
when it had extended its rule over the greater part of Asia, is highly 
probable ; and this would account for the silence of the Jewish 
writers, and for the absence of its name in most ancient Egyptian 
inscription." (Layard's Nineveh, etc., vol. II. 179-80 p.) 



FOREIGN CONQUESTS AND COMMERCE. 125 

The foregoing idea is further proved also by the many examples 
which illustrate the refinement of domestic life and the degree of 
luxury to which the people had arrived. It is, at least, certain 
that the narrow valley of the 'Nile did not supply all the articles, 
which we find variously represented. If not an extensive foreign 
dominion yet at least an extensive commerce was necessary not only 
to obtain all this but also to produce that opulence and that inter- 
change of ideas which constitutes its foundation. When we com- 
pare together the information derived from the monuments with 
what history sa}'s we find these two sources of our knowledge of 
Egypt, especially in its relation and intercourse with other coun- 
tries to agree with each other remarkably well. In his Cyropaedia 
Xenophon speaks of the existence of such an intercourse between the 
nations and states from t'he Nile to the Axus, the Indusand the Ganges, 
information which could hardly be devoid of historical foundation. 
In t v he history of the Middle Ages and of modern times we find re- 
peated proofs that conquering nations extended their dominion not 
only beyond those territories but even as far as China on the east 
and the Atlantic seaboard on the west. Why might not this have 
happened two or three thousand years before ? It may be safely 
concluded that ancient history, in speaking of the great conquering 
expeditions of the Egyptian rulers, Sesostris and others, contains in 
general no internal improbability ; although we leave to criticism 
full liberty to examine the testimonies upon which those historical 
statement are founded ; and do not intend to imply that ourSesos- 
trises were either Tamerlanes or Genghis Khans. 

A careful inspection of the monuments shows that all the public 
buildings of Egypt might in some sense be called temples, since 
they all, in their sculpture and ornamentations, bear traces of the 
close connection, which existed between politics and religion. But 
there is perceptible this difference that some were only temples, in 
the proper sense of that term, while others, although perhaps dedi- 
cated to divinities, as houses and streets are in some Christian 
countries called after the names of Saints, were originally and 
especially intended for other purposes. This difference is per- 
ceived partly in the disposition of the interior and partly in the 
style of the architecture. 

In their interior arrangements the temples and palaces do, at 
first sight, bear a great resenblance to each other. Both have, as 
entrances the splendid pylons, open colonnades and saloons of 
columns ; pillar courts and pillar halls ; even rooms intended for 



126 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

habitations, those in the temples probably for the priests. But in 
the temples the situation of these is usually round the inner sactu- 
ary ; in the palaces, where there was no such adytum, they occupy 
its place and usually consist of saloons and chambers, built of 
granite and not, like the rest, of sandstone. 

In regard to the palaces it must not be forgotten that they were 
not merely the habitations of the Kings, but were also adapted to 
public use. In their splendid halls of columns, it is probable, that 
justice was administered, ambassadors received, tributes paid, etc. 

These buildings are therefore distinguished by the name of 
imperial palaces as in contra-distinction to the smaller palatial 
buildings, the pavilion, for example, which seems to have served 
merely as a private dwelling for the King. As there are no monu- 
ments left at Memphis, Thebes alone contains buildings of this kind 
and is thereby distinguished as the residence of the monarchs. 

In the decorations, moreover, is found another characteristic 
difference. The palaces and temples, it is true, resemble each 
other in one respect, namely, that the walls and pillars of both are 
covered with sculptures; but they differ in respect to the subjects 
represented, those on the walls of the temples relating always to 
religious subjects ; but not so those on the palaces. It is true the 
latter are not entirely destitute of religious subjects; but those 
which are almost exclusively peculiar to them, are, first, the his- 
torical reliefs ; those found in the palaces of Medinet Abou, Luxor 
and Karnac ; and, secondly, the martial expeditions and triumphs 
above described. This explains why they are only, so far as we 
know, found in Thebes, out of whose vicinity there are temples 
but no palaces known.* 

It is, moreover, remarkable that those warlike scenes are mostly 
found on the exterior walls, pylons, etc., on the side walls of the 
great open colonnades and halls of columns, which were intended 
for public use ; assemblies of the people, triumphs, etc. And no 
where could representations of this kind have been more appropri- 
ately placed. Others, on the contrary, appear in the saloons and 
apartments, which must have served as habitations of the monarchs. 
The most part of the scenes here represented are of a peaceful and 
domestic nature, though among them there be interspersed occa- 
sionally religious rites, such as sacrifices, initiation into the mys- 
teries, etc. This was consonant to the real state of the case, con- 



* Historical reliefs are t. m ml upon the temples iu Nubia, but ouly upon the exterior walls. 



TEMPLE OF AMUN AT THEBES. 127 

sidering how much the private life of the kings, according to the 
account of Diodorus, was regulated by a ritual, and that his attend- 
ants were youths of the priest-caste. As at Persepolis the subjects 
represented on the walls bear so close a relation to the uses for 
which the apartments were intended as to enable us to judge accur- 
ately thereof ; but the Egyptians do not seem to have adhered so 
strictly to this rule as the Persians. But Persepolis, as Layard 
remarks, was not founded until after the Persian conquest of 
Egypt; and in the reproduction of the Egyptian models, bottuiu 
the architecture, sculpture and general decoration of their temples 
and palaces they evidently failed to express the freedom, and per- 
fection characteristic of the originals. 

The third difference observable between the temples and palaces 
is to be found in the style of the architecture, the style of the palaces 
being most pleasing and simple throughout, yet retaining a character 
of grandeur and magnificence. In the pavilion, so called by the 
French, we have an example of a building two stories high, which 
is never the case with the temples. 

Now, regarding the temple of Amnion at Thebes : According to 
Diodorus, Thebes had four principal temples, the largest of which 
was, at least, thirty stadia in circumference. As among all these 
that of Amnion was the most celebrated, the question naturally 
arises, which of the temples at Thebes was the old temple of 
Amnion? In the opinion of the most painstaking and competent 
explorers this is the great temple of Karnac, called by the French, 
the great Southern temple. 

The reasons giveu for this are as follows : First, the old temple 
must have been on the eastern side of the Nile, because on this side 
according to Strabo, the old town was built, which derived its 
name from this very temple. If the decision be confined to the 
monuments of Luxor and Karnac, it is found that Luxor contains 
nothing which bears any reference to the temple of Amnion. The 
great building at Luxor is a palace and not a temple as has been 
shown by the description above. Secondly, at Karnac the case is 
quite different. Everything here refers to Jupiter Amnion and his 
service. To this refer the great avenues of colossal rams ; orna- 
ments taken from rams present themselves on every side. Osiris, 
the son and usual companion of Amnion appears frequently, and it 
is known that the tradition of the two usually ascribed to the 
priests, the foundation of the city. The holy ship with the attri- 
butes of Animou appears, and once in a very remarkable represen- 



128 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

tation, where it is represented as being towed along by a profane 
vessel upon the river, which is considered a clear proof that it is 
here not represented as borne in procession but as voyaging on the 
Nile. And, finally, according to the testimony of Diodorus, the 
temple of Amnion was the oldest, and at the same time, the largest 
of all the temples at Thebes; statements which the French have 
verified, that is, taking into consideration the whole plan of the 
buildings, as facts which would have been self-evident, even had he 
not mentioned it, as it was the chief temple of the city, and bore 
the name of the principal Deity. The temple of Karnac appears, 
in the opinion of the French visitors, both in its architecture and iu 
its ornamentation and reliefs, as the oldest of the Theban temples ; 
so much so as to present quite a contrast to the small temple 
near it, notwithstanding, it is partially built of the remains of a 
still more ancient temple, which had the same kind of ornaments. 
Thus, the present temple, or that of which we have contemplated 
the ruins, is only the successor of one which preceded it, and which 
stood here many thousand of years ago: "And who," says one 
writer, " can offer anything like a proof that even this had no pre- 
decessor? " 

The great palace of Medinet Abou is called by the French the 
palace of Sesostris, because the historical reliefs upon it seem to 
represent the exploits and military expeditions of that hero, as they 
are described by Diodorus. In the lion chase we see the youthful 
exercise which he practiced in Arabia during his father's lifetime ; 
in the naval engagement the operations of the fleet which he built 
on the Red Sea, etc. All this appears probable enough, but we 
could judge more understanding^ did we possess copies of all the 
reliefs upon the temple. If, however, Sesostris was the veritable 
hero of the narratives of the Egyptian priests, which is not improb- 
able, then it is reasonable that his exploits should, by pre-eminence, 
be the subjects of the historical pictures, which adorn the walls of 
the palace and temples. 

Herodotus, Diodorus and Strabo, all three agree without dissent 
that some of the ancient Kings of Egypt were great warriors and 
conquerors, who extended their expeditions in the East as far as 
Bactria and India ; in the North and South as far as the Caucasus 
and Ethiopia ; and in the West as far as Thrace, the Scythian coun- 
try, and the Straits of Gibraltar. They further inform us that some 
of them built fleets on the Arabian and Indian Seas and were, in 
naval warfare, as powerful as they were on land. Now, as to how 






REPRESENTATIONS OF BATTLES. 129 

far the reliefs confirm the statements of these writers, we find, in 
fact, that not only these writers but the traditions of the priests, 
which celebrated many of their old Kings as heroes and con- 
querors, are by them confirmed in so far as confirmation might be 
fairly expected in such a way. The inquiry also becomes more in- 
teresting and the conclusion satisfactory by our finding that the ar- 
tists in their delineations and general representations have carefully 
and faithfully distinguished the different nations by their costumes, 
arms, color and some other tokens as far as this was possible. 
Without attending to these particular marks, it is also rendered 
easy to distinguish the Egyptians from their enemies, as the former 
are always represented as victors, the latter as conquered or as on 
the point of being so. These works of art are intended as memo- 
rials of the bravery and fame of the nation and its Kings, which 
shows it reasonable to conclude that they would not have perpetu- 
ated in such an expensive manner any events which did not redound 
to the glory of their nation. 

These latter pieces are partly naval engagements and partly bat- 
tles on land; representations of the former are found on the walls 
of Medinet Abou and on those of Karnac; those at Medinet Abou 
can here only come under our consideration as they alone have 
been copied and described. 

In the naval engagement, which, by the way, took place at sea, 
not on the Nile, a part only could be copied. In their structure 
the ships are different from that of the vessels on the Nile. They 
have a long frame resembling galleys and are impelled by sails and 
oars. Although the Egyptian vessels and those of their enemies 
have the same form, yet the former are easily distinguished from 
the latter by the head of a lion or ram upon the prow, which do 
not appear upon the hostile vessels. The question is whether the 
engagement took place upon the coast of the Mediterranean or on 
that of the Arabian Gulf or the Red or Indian Seas? In the first 
case the enemy might be Phoenicians ; in the other, some southern 
nation. 

The first supposition is not supported by history, nor does it 
appear from the traditions or the monumental representations of 
the nations themselves. Neither does the costume of the enemy 
suit the Phoenicians, who, being of kin to the Hebrews and Ara- 
bians, would doubtless wear beards and long garments, as accord- 
ing to the Asiatic custom ; but the opposite of this appears here. 

But everything here seems to point to an engagement in the Red 
9— b 



130 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Sea or Indian Ocean. The traditions of the Egyptian priests cele- 
brated the expeditions of the old Pharaohs on this sea, as is recorded 
in Herodotus and Diodorus. " Sesostris," says Diodorus, " con- 
quered first the Ethiopians of the south and made them tributary. 
He then sent a fleet of four hundred ships to the Indian sea and 
was the first in those countries who built long vessels. With this 
fleet he took possession of the islands and the coasts of the coun- 
tries as far as India." "The priests," says Herodotus, "relate 
of Sesostris that he sailed out of the Arabian Gulf with long ves- 
sels and conquered the countries lying on the Indian Sea and 
continued to advance till he came to a sea which could not be navi- 
gated because of its shallows." The naval engagement represented 
on the walls of Medinet Abou would rather seem a successful re- 
pulse or defeat of an enemy attempting to land than an attack. 
But this seems only one scene of those naval expeditions of which 
there is left no particular history. 

That the long ships were built for the sea, that their construction 
differed entirely from that of the vessels on the Nile, has been 
mentioned by the French and is seen in their appearance. The 
Egyptians and their allies, while wearing the same habit, have 
weapons different. The former are armed with bows and arrows, 
while the latter carry clubs, as Herodotus ascribes to the Ethiopians 
above Egypt. Of their enemies, among whom two different though 
it may be kindred nations are clearly perceived, the costume is en- 
tirely different. They have neither long garments nor beards, con- 
sequently are not Arabs, Phoenicians or Syrians. They both wear 
short clothes, which seem to be fastened with bands or girdles. 
They are armed with swords and round shields, but differ from 
each other in their head dress ; one constantly wearing a kind of 
helmet, decorated with a bunch of upright feathers, the other a cap 
made of the skin of some beast, with its ears left prominent. The 
French at once recognized in the first of those two nations the in- 
habitants of India. Respesting the other nation of the duo in uuo 
they have not ventured to express an opinion ; but Herodotus 
seems to settle the matter as to who they were. He leaves us to 
conclude that if the first were Indians the second were their neigh- 
bors, the Asiatic Ethiopians, that is to say, the inhabitants of the 
coasts of Gedrosia and Caramania. " The Asiatic Ethiopians," 
says Herodotus, " were dressed much like the Indians; but they 
wore on their head the skin from the forehead of the horse, with 
the ears left on ; the ears of the horse are left standing quite 



ASIATIC AND AFRICAN ^ETHIOPIANS. 131 

upright; but as defensive armor they had crane's skins instead of 
shields." 

Since the probabilities are so strong in favor of this opinion that 
the opponents of the Egyptians in this naval engagement were the 
old Asiatic nations on the Eastern borders of the Indian Ocean, we 
can scarcely any longer consider the traditions of the Egyptian 
priests, regarding the naval expeditions of their ancient Kings, Se- 
sostris and others, as entirely fabulous. And, as to the tradition 
of a primeval connection between those lands, namely, between In- 
dia on the one side and Ethiopia and Egypt on the other, we find it 
to obtain thereby a confirmation, which but for the light we receive 
in this case from the father of history, we could scarcely have been 
justified in expecting to attain to. 

But the pictorial displays of the land battles give a more magni- 
ficent idea than do the naval of the extensive warlike expeditions 
and wide dominion of the ancient Pharaohs of Thebes. They are 
more frequent than the naval scenes, being found on all the imperial 
palaces, as well on those at Luxor and Karnac, as on those at Med- 
inet Abou, on the palace of Osymandyas and in the tombs of the 
Kings. There is in every place a series of representations upon the 
walls, as we discover the departure of the King, the battle, the vic- 
tory, the triumph, always ending in a religious procession. And 
it is also concluded that the scenes in the various palaces form a 
general mythological cycle; as, among the Egyptians, art availed 
itself of a series of traditions relative to the early heroic deeds of 
the nation and its rulers. More complete copies of these war scenes 
would make our information on this point more accurate; but, as 
it is, we must only make the best use we can of such descriptions 
in character and quantity as we possess. 

And in the contemplation of this, everything suggests that Egyp- 
tian art and mythology sought their favorite subjects father in Asi- 
atic than in African history. Of the conquered nations the figure 
and dress are Asiatic. Although the Egyptians are depicted without 
beards, their enemies have them and usually long garments, the lat- 
ter, however, being variously fashioned. They have, in general, 
the full tunics so common in the East ; but in the triumphal pageant 
on the walls of Medinet Abou the prisoners wear a kind of overcoat 
of blue and green stripes, covering only the back, and under this 
another shorter garment. Not less characteristic than their dress 
are their accoutrements and weapons, in this respect the most strik- 
ing difference being in the shields. Those of the Egyptians aie 



132 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

large and usually of a square form, rounded on the side ; in the at- 
tack on a fortress, indeed, they used an immense shield, nearly 
covering the whole body, exactly such as Xenophon (Cyrop. I, 
VI.) describes as being in use in his time. The shields of the ene- 
mies, on the other hand, are sometimes round and sometimes square 
but usually of a small size. In the armature on the reliefs of Luxor, 
Hamilton (p. 125) recognizes the coats of mail which always were 
common in Middle Asia; and, in the head dress, occasionally, the 
Persian tiara. Of so many kinds are the weapons for attack that 
it is difficult to arrive at any precisely correct conclusion concerning 
them. Comparing, however, the various shaped swords of the 
Egyptians with those of their enemies, we find them sometimes 
long, sometimes short ; now straight, now scimitar-shaped. The 
darts, missiles and arrows are also of various descriptions ; the war- 
riors sometimes appear with only a single javelin and at other times 
with several. 

As to the war chariots which wei'e in use among the Egyptians 
and their adversaries, a still more particular attention is due to 
them. They have in all cases two wheels, that is, one on each side. 
Those of the Egyptians in the most ancient times usually carried 
but one man, in later times often two ; butamong the Asiatics they 
usually carried two men and later three, as the driver, the bowman 
and the swordsman. In these may be recognized the ancient form 
of the war chariots as described by Homer, and which, according to 
Xenophon, were common among the Medes, Syrians and Ara- 
bians, until Cyrus made an improvement by introducing instead of 
them chariots with four wheels and with scythes. To attempt to 
point out more accurately than I have done by their arms and cloth- 
ing the particular nations here concerned would appear to be a fruit- 
less undertaking ; and, therefore, to terminate the inquiry by a few 
general remarks may prove to us quite as profitable. 

Egyptian history and tradition lay the scene of their wars and 
conquests chiefly in Assyria, which with other provinces included 
Chaldaea, in which stood the city of Babylon; in Bactria and India, 
consequently in the countries of Asia most famous for their com- 
merce and for possessing that wealth, which usually incites a desire 
for conquest. Besides, those countries are situated on the great 
rivers, the Euphrates, on which stood Babylon, the Tigris, on 
which was Nineveh, the Oxus, Jaxartes, Indus, Ganges, etc.; and 
it is worthy or remark that the scenes of the battles and the vic- 
tories on the reliefs is usually near the river, which is clearly por- 



WARLIKE SCENES. 133 

traved. Which of the streams is meant on each occasion it may be 
difficult to decide ; but it can hardly be doubted that it is one of 
those mentioned, perhaps, more often the Euphrates or the Tigris. 

The storming of a fortress is one representation which frequently 
occurs. This also transports us into Asia, but where it took place 
at each time we need not attempt to decide. From the history of 
Alexander's expeditions we know how much Bactria as well as India 
abounded in such mountain fortresses. 

In representing those scenes of war Egyptian art seems to have 
paid much attention to variety. From the accounts of the French 
and those of Hamilton we learn that there scarcely remains any 
great warlike scene which is not here represented. Sometimes it is 
the commencement of the contest in an open plain, sometimes the 
near approach of the contestants to each other; sometimes the 
victory obtained on on6 side and flight on the other ; now the 
struggle of the armies; now of the leaders in single combat, and of 
these, sometimes in their chariots and sometimes on foot. Now, 
the scene changes to the storming of a fortress, then the taking of 
a town by assault, with a representation of all the horrors which 
usually accompany it; sometimes the chariots alone are engaged, 
and at others on foot. All this presupposes history either written 
or traditional in abundance ; and doubtless, also, poetry to which 
those traditions furnished material ; if not epic yet balladic. 

The Egyptians, therefore, read the early history of their nations 
and its heroes on the walls of the imperial palaces. With a suc- 
cess surpassing all expectation they are the only nation known to 
us that have ventured to represent such historical subjects in sculp- 
tures. We learn from an eye-witness that although unacquainted 
with the rules of perspective they make up for this deficiency by 
the strength of their drawings and the force of the expression. Of 
the above-mentioned representation of the surprise and capture of 
a town on the walls of the palace of Osymandyas Hamilton speaks 
in tones of rapture : Here some of the women rush forward and 
beg for quarter, while others try to escape with their property. 
The father of a family raises his hands to petition for the lives of 
his wives and children, but in vain ! the eldest son has already suc- 
cumbed to a blood-thirsty soldier ! How different our estimation 
of ancient Egyptian art now from what it was when we founded our 
judgment thereof upon the idea conveyed by a few idols ! They seem, 
indeed, to be enlarged almost in the same proportion as our notions 
of the ancient Kings of Egypt and the extent of their dominions. 



134 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Of the sculptures on the main walls the historical reliefs com- 
prise, however, only a small part; most of them relate to reli- 
gious rites, all, for example, in the temples and many in the 
palaces and catacombs. I shall only notice here such of those as 
relate to the immediate object of our attention. Of the close and 
indissoluble connection between religion and politics abundant 
proofs might be found here, if further such were required. The 
interior and exterior walls are covered with sculptures, which 
represent processions or the offering of gifts and sacrifices. There 
is a complete confirmation of the conjecture that the circle of di- 
vinities in the Thebaid was of less extent than it afterwards became 
in Middle and Lower Egypt. This circle is composed of Amnion, 
Osiris, Isis and Florus. The first two concluded to have been 
identical in their origin, and only separated by the further develop- 
ment of the religion of the priests, are the ruling divinities ; al- 
though some others occur in the paintings they only appear as 
subordinate deities. Osiris seems, at the same time, to be the 
prototype of the king; the same emblems which decorate the God 
are not unfrequently bestowed upon the monarch ; not only the 
same head dress with the serpent, but also the same attributes, the 
rod and what is called the key, the sign of initiation into the mys- 
steries which must have been its original meaning, and even the 
royal banner. The priests pay to the king the same honors as the 
latter pays to the gods. This is not the case with any other deity. 

The dependence in which the king stood to the priests is clearly 
enough shown in every part of these representations. There ap- 
pears no doubt that at the time these temples were erected the caste 
of the priests was esteemed higher than that of the warriors, which 
nevertheless forms so distinguished a feature in these pictures. The 
priest-caste consider the king as it were their property ; he is ini- 
tiated into their mysteries, which is a scene oft-repeated. In it he 
receives the priestly head-dress, the high cap wherewith Osiris him- 
self is decorated and appears in solemn processions. Whenever 
the king appears in public, martial expeditions and battles excepted, 
he is constantly accompanied by priests. By their shaven heads 
and long robes they are recognized. Among them, however, dif- 
ferent grades existed, which are mostly indicated by the head-dress 
and the shape of their garments. Both of these are peculiar. The 
head-dresses not only show the rank, but some seem peculiar to 
certain ceremonies and change accordingly. Among the head-gears 
must be reckoned the animal masks in which the priests appear on 



KINSHIP OF THE JEWISH TO THE EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 135 

certain occasions, particularly at initiations. They are masks taken 
from the sacred animals. The manner of dressing the hair is 
equally various, and, in some cases, there can be no doubt but that 
false hair or wigs are seen here, as well as in the most ancient In- 
dian monuments at Elephantis, but much more artificial, compli- 
cated and elegant. 

A wide field opens here also for theologians who would like to 
compare the religious notions of ancient Thebes with the descrip- 
tions given of the Jewish sanctuary, the tabernacle, the temple and 
the sacred utensils and paraphernalia. For a comparison of such 
kind this is hardly the place ; but in those monumental representa- 
tions how many things we do find which are described in the 
Scriptures ! — the ark of the covenant (here carried in procession), 
the cherubim with their extended wings, the holy candlesticks, the 
shewbread and many parts of the sacrifices. Although among the 
Jews everything was upon a smaller scale, yet in the architecture 
itself a certain similarity is instantly recognizable. Besides the 
disparity in size between the Jewish and Theban temples we are to 
remember that the temple at Jerusalem was as much of wood as 
stone. But, although Egypt had no Lebanon with cedars, we know 
that wood was used to some extent in Egyptian temples, at least 
for ornaments, as is proved by the masts with their pennants flying 
before them on the great pylons, and by the account in Hero- 
dotus of the wooden statues of the chief priests in the temple 
at Thebes. But what works of art in brass must have decorated 
those colossal temples of the Egyptians, beginning with the tre- 
mendous gates and pylons and extending to the innermost sanc- 
tuary, if we estimate them in proportion to what was contained 
in the smaller temple of the Jews ! If the monarch Time and the 
avarice of crowned and uncrowned robbers had not left it to be 
supplied by the imagination what a wealth of new wonders con- 
tained in old objects we should here now have to contemplate. 

Now, with regard to the origin of the Egyptian nation I do not, 
in this connection, speak so particularly as of the origin of Thebes 
as a colony of Meroe. This colonization was celebrated by an an- 
nual procession of the priests with the statue of Amnion. " Every 
year," says Diodorus, (i.p. 110) " the sanctuary of Amun is taken 
over the river to the Libyan side" (consequently from the temple 
of Karnac) " whence it is brought back after a few days, as though 
the god returned from Ethiopia." This tour is supposed to be 
represented upon one of the reliefs in the temple of Karnac ; the 



136 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

holy ark of Amnion is here seeu on the river fully equipped and 
being towed along by another boat, and thus performing its voy- 
age. Of this festival there must have been a remarkable celebra- 
tion, as even Homer alluded to it when he mentions the voyage of 
of Zeus to the Ethiopians and his absence for twelve days That 
it was usual for the colonial deities to pay such visits to those of 
the parent states is known from antiquity in general. The forms 
of these visits, however, varied as they were sometimes paid in 
such processions as these and sometimes by solemn embassies. 

Although of its high antiquity there is abundant evidence the 
time of the founding of Thebes cannot be stated with certainty. If 
in the time of Abraham the cultivation of Egypt had spread info 
the Delta, that of Upper Egypt must have long previously been 
well advanced. According to Diodorus the foundation of the 
temple of Ammon took place before that of the city ; and according 
to the French explorers similar but older materials are discovered 
to have been used in raising the walls of the very ancient temple of 
Karnac. This may reasonably be thought to put the foundation of 
this state mauy centuries prior to the time of Abraham, and this 
is thought to be confirmed by the many royal Sepulchres at Thebes- 
The empire of Menes I find to have commenced about 2150 B. C. 
The Biblical chronology puts Abraham's mid life about 1910 
B. C, so that his time would synchronise with that of the con- 
temporaneous first two kings of Manetho's 2nd and 3rd dynasties ; 
but some Chronologers put Abraham's time much earlier than did 
Usher. We may safely reckon the new Temple of Amun to have 
been built at Thebes in the time of the 1st dynasty ; and some 
supposed the date of the foundation of the old temple to have 
been as early as 2900 — 2800 B. C, which they do not con- 
sider too early a date to assume for it. The eighteenth dy 
nasty of Manetho comprised, according to Eusebius (p. 215) four- 
teen kings as follows: Amosis, twenty-five years; Chebron thir- 
teen years; Amenophis, twenty-one years; Memphres, twelve 
years ; MWphatumosis, twenty-five years ; Thuthraosis, nine years ; 
Amenophis II.,* thirty-one years ; Orus, twenty-eight years ; Ach- 



* This was the same with the Memnon of the Greeks, from whose statue a sound is said to 
have issued every morning at sun-rising. As to this statement itself it is confirmed by such 
respectable evidence that its truth cannot be doubted. " The Thebans maintain," says Pau- 
Banias, (p. 101) " that the colossus does not represent Memnon but Phamenophis, one of their 
native kings." This is further corroborated by an inscription upon the statue: " I, Publius Bal- 
buius, have heard t lie divine voice of Memnon or Phamenoph." Ph or Pha or Pa is the Egyp- 
tian or Coptic definite article the. Pha-raoh the son of the sun." Ph-amen-oph, the son of 
Amun. 



DYNASTIES. 137 

encheres, sixteen years. Under this one is placed the departure of 
Moses. Acherres, eight years ; Cherres, fifteen years ; Aramais 
(Danaus) five years; Eameses (JEgyptus) sixty-eight years; 
Amenophis III., forty years. 

The nineteenth dynasty comprised eight kings, as follows : Sethos* 
(Sesostris) fifty-five years ; this I understand to be same root name 
as Rameses with Ram prefixed ; form aes, as in Asia for Aeth as in 
Aethiopia, and this with the proper consonant S prefixed, is Saes as in 
Ses-ostris, or Seth for Saeth, as in Sethosis, Sethos or Sethis. Ses- 
ostris means the same as Rameses, in one sense, the great King; 
in another form, Rameset, born of the suu. We learn from Diodorus 
that the traditions concerning him were adorned and exaggerated 
by verse; and, although he was certainly a great and actual hero, 
we must consider much that is stated concerning him as political 
history, highly embellished by the traditions of the priests. Says 
an able writer on this subject : "Sesostris or Rameses, the great, 
(as we may very properly call him to distinguish him from his 
namesakes) is not to be considered as a mere creature of the imag- 
ination ; that he is not to be considered a symbolical being, but histor- 
ically a monarch of Egypt is so obvious as to render it almost 
unnecessary to mention it "); Rampses, sixty-six years; Ainen- 
eptes, eight years ; Amnemenes, twenty -six years ; Thuoris (Hom- 
er's Polybus) seven years ; under this one the destruction of Troy, 
soon after anno 1200 B. C. Of the twentieth dynasty, which in- 
cluded twelve Kings and lasted one hundred and seventy-two years, 
the fragments of Manetho, as according to Eusebius, do not give the 
names: and for the twenty-first dynasty, he gives for the reigns of 
five Kings, as they come before me, one hundred and fifteen years, 
but, according to Herodotus, one hundred and thirty. 

Sesonchosis, the first King of the twenty-second dynasty, becomes 
more interesting to us as Champollion (p. 232) recognizes in him 
the Shishak of the Jewish annals. His name, Sheshonk, together 
with his title, "the confirmed of Amuu," is found on one of the 
first great courts of columns in the palace of Karnak; and the cor- 
rectness of this reading is confirmed, according to Manetho, by the 
name of his son and successor, Osorthon, being found close to it. 



* This is the most celebrated of all the Pharaohs. He is called Sethosis, Sesorsis or Sesos- 
tris, and the pages of Manetho, Herodotus and Diodorus bear testimony of his fame. On the 
mnouraents, however, he is not mentioned by either of these forms of name, but by the form 
Rameses; but that he was called by both those forms of name, Manetho, himself tells us (Jo- 
seph, Autiq., p. 1043 and 1057; Champollion, p. 227; Cf. Tacit, Annal ii, 61; Chaeremon Hist, of 
Bgypt. 



138 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

The identity of the name forms Sheshonk and Sheshak is very im- 
portant, enabling us, as it does, to determine the chronology. Shis- 
hak was the contemporary of Rehoboani, the son and successor of 
Solomon. In the fifth year of the reign of Rehoboam, about anno 
970 B. C. (2 Chron. xii :2.) he made war upon Palestine, took and 
sacked Jerusalem and pillaged the temple. At this time, according 
to the Jewish accounts, the Egyptian nation must have been very 
powerful ; for it is said of Shishak that he came up with twelve hun- 
dred chariots of war, sixty thousand horsemen and an innumerable 
body of infantry, consisting of Egyptians, Libyans, Troglodytes 
and Ethiopians. His empire, therefore, must have extended over 
all those countries, far beyond the limits of Egypt. In the century 
after him this greatness must have declined, and the power of the 
rulers of Meroe, under the dynasty of Sabaco, the Ethiopian (who 
reigned between 800 and 700 B. C, both over Ethiopia and Thebes) 
must have prevailed. The Pharaoh Bochoris, who, according to 
Manctho, alone occupies the twenty-fourth dynasty, was defeated, 
taken prisoner and burnt to death by Sabaco. 

About this time, therefore, say anno 800 B. C, begins to decline 
the Theban might and grandeur. Notwithstanding the extent of 
the expeditions of Sesostris, there is no proof that the dominion of 
the Pharaohs in Asia was at any time of long duration. That it 
may have occasionally embraced Syria, the coasts of Southern 
Arabia and, perhaps also Babylonia, is more than probable. Had 
there been, however, any permanent dominion over the interior of 
Asia, some account of it would have been likely to have been pre- 
served in the Jewish annals. Arabia Petrea, doubtless, did belong 
to Egypt, for this was proven to the satisfaction of Niebuhr by cer- 
tain monuments covered with hieroglyphics which he found here and 
copied. These monuments Niebuhr considered to have been tombs ; 
but they may possibly have been remnants of a temple. Any last- 
ing conquests in Europe have never been claimed by Egypt. 

That Egypt was, in all its parts, subject to the Kings of Thebes 
cannot be doubted. " There was once a time," says Herodotus, 
(11, 15), " when the whole of Egypt was called Thebes; not only 
the fruitful valley of the Nile, but also the eastern and western 
borders." The eastern side, usually spoken of under the name of 
Arabia, was subdued by Sesostris, without which, indeed, he could 
not have built a fleet on the Arabian Gulf; but how far toward the 
west the dominion of the Pharaohs extended is uncertain. That it 
comprised the two oases the monuments prove ; it must have ex- 



^EGYPTIAN FOREIGN DOMINIONS. 139 

tended into proper Africa, for Libyans are enumerated among their 
subjects. That the inhabitants of Marea and Apis were still 
Egyptians was formerly decided by a sentence of the oracle of 
Amnion : — " All that is watered by the Nile is Egypt ; and all who 
from Elephantis downwards, drink its waters are Egyptians ;" this 
was on occasion when they desired to be classed as Libyans. In 
what political relation Ammonium or Siwah stood to Thebes can- 
not be here exactly stated ; but as it was a colony of Thebes and 
the worship of Amnion prevailed there it may at least be assumed 
that the relation which commonly subsisted between parent states 
and their colonies, when they held to the same religion, was in 
effect here, although it might not amount to a complete dependence. 
Amonium, so far as our information goes, is the western limit of 
the Theban monuments and therefore most likely to have been 
recognized as of the Egyptian dominions. In this possession they 
were neighbors to the Carthaginians. A peaceable commercial in- 
tercourse was long carried on between them ; but we learn from 
Ammianus Marcellinus (xii, 4,) that hostilities occasionally broke 
out. From this source we also learn that a little before the Per- 
sian invasion (supposed 600 — 550 B. C.) a Carthaginian army 
had surprised and sacked Thebes, a shock from which this city had 
scarcely recovered at the time of its invasion by Cambyses. 

In the direction of Ethiopia the dominion of the Pharoahs ex- 
tended, doubtless, for some ages to the northern boundary of the 
empire of Meroe, and, notwithstanding that this empire was once 
overrun by Sesostris, its subjection could not have been of long 
duration as is proved both by history and the monuments. Thus 
we see on the banks of the Nile, from its sources to the Mediter- 
ranean the two empires of Thebes and Meroe, existing contem- 
porarily during so many ages, under mutual relations, various and 
changeable. The extent of the empire of the Pharaohs, therefore, 
exclusive of mere transitory conquests, was nearly that of present 
Egypt ; but how different was the state of Egypt in those ages to 
what it is now ! 

That Thebes was the usual seat of government for a series of 
ages is shown as plainly by the ruins of its palaces as by the 
testimony of historians. Religious notions were so connected with 
the residence of the monarch that neither subjectively nor object- 
ively could this be left unnoticed, although some change after- 
wards took place. Their religious notions were closely connected 
with the idea they entertained of a life after death. The Pharaohs 



140 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

lived near their tombs, for there, according to the belief of the 
Egytians, were the proper habitations ; hence the construction and 
decoration of these engrossed the attention of their kings quite as 
much as the construction and decoration of their palaces, of which 
we have proof in the tomb of Osymandyas, situated near his 
palace and in the sepulchres and caverns near Thebes. With them 
it was not a matter of indifference where they were buried. Cer- 
tain spots were preferred to all others and held sacred ; because, 
according to the tradition of the priests, they were the spots in 
which Osiris, the ruler both of the upper and lower world was 
buried. They all, of course, wished to rest near him ! These 
places were numerous. In the Thebaid, besides Thebes itself, 
there was a small island near Philae and Elephantis, and also 
Abydos, formerly called This. In Middle Egypt there was 
Memphis, and, in the Delta, Busiris. Mr. Creuzer, therefore, has 
fairly enough proved that those burial places of Osiris were the 
seats of the Egyptian monarchs. This is supposed by some to 
show that those places were the earliest states of Egypt before it 
became consolidated into one empire; which, if it have such mean- 
ing as is supposed to be implied, might throw a new light upon the 
dynasties of Manetho. 

At a comparatively late period Memphis became the capital of 
Egypt, for Manetho tells us of a King Athotis and Diodorus of a 
King Urchoreus, who built a palace there, which, however, did not 
equal in magnificence those at Thebes. The particular date of its 
foundation is uncertain, but Diodorus adds that it was the removal 
of the successors of its builder to Memphis which caused Thebes 
to decline. It was, however, a common thing for the monarchs of 
the Eastern countries to have more than one residence and, al- 
though the kings of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties might 
for some time, have made Memphis their capital after its evacuation 
by the Hykshasu, yet their names upon the monuments of Thebes 
as well as the general circumstances of the case sufficiently evince 
that the latter place was their proper seat of government. This 
wvi-;, also, the place of the inauguration into the government, and 
would not easily have lost its right to be considered the capital of 
the nation. 

With regard to this government there is no doubt but that it 
always remained a hierarchy, but the relation of the king, the head 
of this hierarchy, to the general body of the priesthood may re- 
quire some further elucidation. As to whether the monarchy was 



ELECTION AND LIFE OF THE MONARCH. 141 

hereditary or elective, it may be remarked that as we read so often 
of the son succeeding to the father we may fairly conclude it im- 
plied that it was hereditary, although Synesius, a comparatively 
late writer, describes the election of .a king to the throne. It is 
not known from what ancient writer Synesius borrowed his rela- 
tion, which there has been no reason assigned for supposing ficti- 
tious ; but we know that hereditary succession in the same family 
or clan may be not incompatible with election, when a peculiar 
combination of circumstances may necessitate it, and as we see in- 
stances of in some modern monarchies. It is not probable that the 
king was taken from the priest-caste ; for if such had been the 
case we cannot conceive the necessity of his initiation into it 
after his inauguration, a ceremony in connection with coronation, 
which repeatedly appears upon the walls of Karnac and Medinet 
Abou. 

In the case of an election of a monarch we may conceive that 
the person nominated and elected by the priests, if his personal 
character did not otherwise order him, would be much under their 
control ; hence it happened that nothing of such importance could 
be done till the oracle had been first consulted. In many of the 
processions of the oracle ship, pictured on the walls of the temples 
and palaces, we see the king coming to meet the holy ark, as it is 
borne by the priests in such attitudes as to show clearly that he 
seeks a favorable decision from the oracle. 

But the strict routine by which his every-day life was regulated, 
was another circumstance which held the monarch in such depend- 
ence on the priests. An example of this is also found in the 
power exercised in a similar manner over the king of Persia by the 
Magi. Early in the morning (as was natural in so hot a climate) 
Diodorus tells us, the affairs of state were settled. The sacred cer- 
emonies next followed. The king went to sacrifice and prayer ; he 
then listened while he was instructed from the sacred writings of 
his duties in which the greatest possible moderation in all enjoy- 
ments was strictly inculcated. The scenes so often recurring upon 
the walls of the temples and palaces leave us no room to doubt but 
that the most powerful of the monarchs were accustomed to con- 
form to these prescriptions; but with all this we know, for reason 
as well as common sense assures us, that the degree of their subjec- 
tion to the priests depended largely upon their own personal char- 
acter. The constitution and regulation of the court of the 
Pharaohs very much assisted the priests in the maintenance of their 



142 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

influence over the king; the court was mainly composed of the sons 
of the high priests. These were they who served the king, whom 
no slave might approach. The custom which was in use long before 
the Ptolemies that the kings should marry their sisters doubtless 
arose in order to prevent strangers from succeeding to the throne. 

With regard to the divisions of Egypt, Herodotus ascribes this 
division to Sesostris. 

Ten nornes are enumerated in Upper Egypt, sixteen in Middle 
Egypt and ten in Lower Egypt. Strabo speaks of the Egyptian 
nomarchi and toparchi — the former the officers intrusted with the 
government of the separate nornes and the latter with that of the 
districts and villages. The Egyptian word for nome a district is 
Ptosch, doubtless Pa-tosch, the district or division by way of pre- 
eminence. 

The reveuues of the Pharaohs were derived from various sources 
of which the lands were the most important. The lands which be- 
longed to the kings and priests were cultivated by the persons who 
paid rent for their use. And Diodorus informs us that the lands 
of the priests and soldiers were free from taxes or rent as regards 
any claim of the government, which was not the case with the rest. 
But in speaking of the land rent we must keep in mind that this 
was rather in the nature of a tax, which in Egypt, was regulated 
according to the produce of the soil, arising from the overflowing 
of the river. It was determined by the measurement of the Nile, 
and from this we may conclude that the same method was followed 
in ancient as in modern times, namely, the ground or produce rent 
fixed annually. In the present age they wait till the flood has 
reached its highest point, and according to the height the taxes or 
rents are graduated and immediately imposed. That it was the 
same method that was followed in ancient times we are informed 
by Diodorus (I. p. 44). " The kings, to prevent any inconveni- 
ence which might arise from the rising of the flood have constructed 
at Memphis a Nilometer. Those who manage it can measure ex- 
Metly in yards and inches the rising and falling of the river of which 
I hey send immediately advice to the several towns. The people 
by this are enabled to judge beforehand of the produce they may 
expect. Accounts of the rise and fall of the river have been pre- 
served among the Egyptians from the earliest times." As it is 
almost impossible that individuals should have private landed prop- 
erty on account of the annual overflowings which obliterate the 
boundaries, so a whole township possesses the land in common, 



THE NUBIAN GOLD MINES. 143 

every one whose name is inscribed in the township book being a 
partner and sharing the produce. Thus the rents or taxes are not 
imposed upon individuals but upon whole towns and villages, which 
are obliged to answer for them. Even now each village has a 
coptus or secretary and these secretaries are closely united, form- 
ing a kind of caste, distinct from the inhabitants, and, it may pos- 
sibly be, are descended from the old caste of priests? 

Now, this institution of common possession may have existed in 
the antiquity, as the natural constitution of the Nile's Valley seems 
to determine its propriety therein ; and when Herodotus ascribes 
the origin of geometry to those mensurations it can hardly be un- 
derstood otherwise than of the measurement of whole townships, 
although he might derive his conjecture from private possessions. 
For the construction of the canal system considerable mathematical 
knowledge was required, and upon the good condition in which 
these were kept the fruitfulness of their land largely depended. 
The government, therefore, had control both of the land and of 
the canal system, which was its particular interest and care. 

A second source of the revenue of the Pharaohs were the gold 
mines of Nubia, which were reckoned among the most productive 
in the world, and account for the abundance of gold spoken of in 
Egyptian history. Agatharchides, who visited them during the 
reign of Ptolemy IV., has given a scientific and, as it proves, an 
accurate description of them. They were, according to him, 
situated near the present Mount Alaka, 22° north latitude, 51° 
east longitude, not far from the ancient Berenice Panchrysos, 
as it was called in the time of the Ptolemies. They were worked 
by a great number of prisoners, men, women and children, among 
whom the labor was divided according to their strength and ability. 
This writer describes quite minutely the manner in which the labor 
was performed. " These mines," says he, " have already been 
worked for a very long time and were discovered by the first Kings 
of these countries. The working of them, however, was interrupted, 
when the Ethiopians, who are said to have founded Memnoniuin, 
overran Egypt, and kept possession for a long period of its towns, 
and again under the dominion of the Medes and Persians. In the 
shafts made at that time brass instruments are still found, the use 
of iron bein^ then unknown. Bones also are found in irreat 
quantities of people who were smothered in them by the caving in 
of the earth. The extent of these mines was such that the 
subterranean passages reached to the sea." 



144 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

From the accounts of the Arabian writers we learn that these 
mines are situated in the country of the Bodjahs, the ancient Blem- 
mies, between Eidub and Suakiu ; that they abound in silver, copper, 
iron and precious stones ; but that gold is chiefly sought for. It 
was to possess these mines that the Pharaohs made war against 
this country, a war which the Greek dynasty in Egypt also prose- 
cuted in their time. These mines appear to have lain unworked 
from the end of the fourteenth century till Belzoni again discovered 
them ; there are four species of emeralds found in them, which 
attract a good sale in India and China. 

Another source of revenue to the Pharaohs were the fisheries, in 
so far as they belonged to the crown. As fish formed a principal 
article of food among the Egyptians, fishing was found to be a 
lucrative employment, for the Nile contained an abundance of fisb 
especially at the time of the flood. Of what importance the fisheries 
were may partially be gathered from the words of the prophet (Isa. 
xix), when he threatens Egypt with approaching famine: "The 
waters shall fail from the sea and the river shall be wasted and 
dried up ; the fishes also shall mourn and all they that cast angle in 
the brook shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the water 
shall languish." 

The fishery of the Nile itself was left to the people untaxed as 
well it might have been ; but of the canals and the lake Moeris the 
fishery pertained to the crown. Herodotus tells us that this fishery 
supplied a talent daily to the royal treasury, during the six months 
in which the waters flowed through the canal into the lake ; and 
during the six months in which it ebbed, twenty minae a day ; 
which income of twenty minea a day for the six months of the ebb, 
(as I understand it to mean), was, according to Diodorus, turned 
over to the queen. The fish of which there were twenty-two 
different kinds were salted and preserved ; and the quantity was so 
great that the persons whose business it was to preserve them 
could seldom complete their labor. " With a considerable part of 
this people," says Herodotus, " fish continues the principal article 
of food ; they dry it in the sun and eat it without further prepara- 
tion. Those fishes which are gregarious seldom multiply in the 
Nile ; they usually propagate in the lakes. At the season of spawn- 
ing they move in vast multitudes towards the sea ; the male leads 
the way and emits the engendering principle in their passage ; this 
the females absorb as they follow, and, in consequence, conceive. 
As soon as the seminal matter has had its proper operation, they 



SOURCES OF REVENUE 145 

leave the sea, return up the river and endeavor to regain their 
accustomed haunts. The mode, however, of their passage is re- 
versed, the females lead the way while the males follow. The 
females do now what the males did before, they drop their spawn, 
resembling small grains of millet, which the males eagerly devour. 
Every particle of this contains a small fish and each which escapes 
the male regularly increases till it becomes a fish. Of these fish 
such as are taken in their passage toward the sea are observed to 
have the left side of their heads depressed, which, on their return, 
is observed of their right. The cause of this is obvious; as they 
pass toward the sea they rub themselves against the banks on the 
left side ; as they return they keep closely to the same bank, and, 
in both instances, press against it that they may not be obliged to 
deviate from their course by the current of the stream. As the 
Nile gradually rises, the water first fills those cavities of the land 
which are nearest the river. As soon as they are saturated an 
abundance of small fry may be discovered. The cause of their 
increase may perhaps be thus explained : When the Nile ebbs, the 
fish, which in the preceding season had deposited their spawn in the 
mud, retreat reluctantly with the stream ; but at the proper season 
when the stream flows this spawn is matured into fish." 

There were also other sources of revenue to the Pharaohs which I 
do not think it necessary here to enumerate ; but the question will 
occur: How were thoses taxes paid? was it in coined money or in 
produce? That the precious metals were used as representatives of 
value in Egypt there is no doubt ; but no coins of the Pharaohs has 
yet been discovered, nor has there been anything yet found on the 
monuments relating to money. But, notwithstanding all this, we 
might suspect from the transactions of Joseph and his brethern that 
accwunts in Egypt were reckoned in money, whether or not our 
suspicion were well grounded. " And he commanded the steward 
to put every man's money in his sack's mouth; to Benjamin he 
gave three hundred pieces of silver." (Gen. ch. xliv and xlv.) 
Against coining there was a particular law as well as against usury. 
But may not Phoenician and afterwards Cyrenean money have been 
current in Egypt? The Hykshas, during their long occupancy, 
might have had some such circulating medium as representative of 
produce values. It is most probable that payments were made by 
weight of the precious metals, as scales very often appear on the 
reliefs, and as this corresponds with the ancient way of reckoning 
among the Hebrews, Greeks, Assyrians and other ancient nations. 
10— b 



146 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



It is clear from the accounts of Diodorus that the Egyptians had 
a written body of laws in eight books, of which he has preserved 
specimens. These laws which the Egyptians ascribe to their early 
kings, Muevis, Asychis, Sesostris, and Bochoris, relate to crimes and 
matters of police (with which the legislation of all nations is found 
to begin) and they betray their early origin by their severe punish- 
ments. Other laws, however, present to us a people who had 
already made considerable progress in civilization. Security of per- 
son and property (the creditor could only attach the property not 
the person) ; the sanctity of oaths (which was considered as the 
foundation of the state) ; and of marriages (among the priests mon- 
ogamy was ordained ;* but not among the other classes and the 
father gave his rank to his children, even though their mothers 
were slaves) ; the permission and yet the limitation of usury (the 
capital could only be doubled by the interest) ; the punishment 
for treachery and cowardice in a soldier; for coining base metals ; 
using false measures, weights, seals, and forming legal documents, 
are proof of this assertion. The single law which ordained the 
same punishment for the murder of a slave and a freeman indicates 
an advance in real civilization which is seldom met with among the 
nations of antiquity. 

This same impartiality appears still further in their legal insti- 
tutions, respecting which Diodorus has preserved many particulars. 
The kings did not sit as judges but the administration of justice was 
left to its proper tribunals, whose sentences were strictly limited by 
the laws. Every one pleaded his own cause, no counsel being per- 
mitted. The accounts of Diodorus, however, are confined to the 
regulations of the highest courts of justice ; of the lower courts of 
which many must needs have existed, we have no knowledge. This 
highest national tribunal consisted of thirty judges, who were chosen 
from the principal inhabitants of the three cities of Thebes, Memphis 
and Heliopolis, and were paid by the king. These thirty elected 
from among themselves a president, whose place was filled by an- 
other from the city to which he belonged. The proceedings in this 
high court of justice were all transacted in writing, as their great 
object was to avoid everything which could excite the passions. 
The prosecutor first sent a copy of his accusation and at the same 
time specified the damage he demanded ; to which the defendant 



* When Herodotus (temps. 415 B. C.) mentions that the Egyptians practice monogamy as the 
Greeks he does not make any distinction between the priests and people. Time of Diodorus 
circa 50 B. 0. 



LAWS AND ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 147 

responded in a similar manner. The prosecutor was at liberty to 
reply to this in writing and the defendant might again answer ; and 
after this the court was obliged to pronounce sentence. This like- 
wise was <i'iven in writing and sealed by the president. He, as an 
emblem of his dignity, wore round his neck a golden chain, to which 
was attached an image set in precious stones with a hieroglyphic ; it 
was called Truth. At the beginning of every session he was ob- 
liged to hang this about him. This image, as we are informed by 
Diodorus, was the seal which was affixed to the sentence. A golden 
chain was given to Joseph as a sign of honor, and it is often found 
sculptured on the monuments with some ornaments attached to it. 

As to the military art of the Egyptians we find it to have been 
similar in many respects to that of the Greeks, as described by 
Homer. Neither nation in the very early ages, at least, made use 
of cavalry. Their armaments consisted of war-chariots and in- 
fantry. The war chariots seem to have borne by far the largest 
proportion, even to judge from Homer, as whole battles are de- 
scribed, in which only the chariots are mentioned as engaged. The 
size of the man must have been taken into account in the appoint- 
ment of a leader. The kin<r elevated above all is sometimes desi<r- 
nated by the hawk hovering over him ; at others by the serpent in 
his helmet, and sometimes by both. He is also known by having a 
standard carried behind him, which represents the leaf of the 
Theban palm. The splendor of the horses as well as of their har- 
ness and trappings is surprising ; as is also that of their beautifully 
formed chariots, seemingly all of metal. In these last respects the 
Egyptians were not, what we may call, so barbaric in their splendor 
as the Assyrians. They appear to have had, in everything, more 
of an eye to actual business than to show. Not less remarkable 
are the close columns and skillful positions and evolutions of the 
infantry, just as Xenophon describes them in his Cyropacdea. 
These exhibitions presuppose long and accurate training and could 
be supposed to be common among the Egyptians only to t lie 
warrior caste. The manner of attack, of outflanking and surround- 
ing, give evident proof of advanced skill in tactics. The same skill 
also appears in the naval engagements, which show that at least 
some of the Pharaohs were well prepared for naval operations. 

" In that day there shall be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria; 
and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt and the Egyptian into 
Assyria" (Isa,xix: 23-25). A contemplation of the picture given 
us of the manner of life, arts, agriculture, manufactures, commerce, 



148 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

etc., of the ancient Egyptians is of such great interest that we will 
here pursue it a little further, and this with reference to the whole 
of Egypt, in the hope that we may find it interesting as well as 
profitable and tending to more completely round out our idea of 
the ancient Egyptian cosmopolity. 

On account of the representations found therein the tombs of 
Eilethyia are among the most interesting discoveries made in 
Egypt by the French. The painted reliefs found on the walls of 
that called the Sultan's tomb represent the occupations of daily 
life, the various branches of industry, of fishing, hunting, naviga- 
tion and of the business of their markets. In the plates given in 
«' Description de l'Egypte" we have made visible to our eyes what 
we could before but very imperfectly conceive from mere verbal 
descriptions. We must not, of course, conclude that they were 
ignorant of such domestic scenes and occupations as we do not 
happen to find among them, for we need not expect to find all such 
represented nor the extremest detail in the representations that 
are. The industries of so civilized a nation were distributed over 
too many different objects for them all to be represented here. 
But however various the occupations of the people may have been 
there is no doubt that the cultivation of the earth held the highest 
rank, for agriculture was considered the foundation of civilization. 

From the nature of that country their agriculture exhibits many 
peculiarities. It depended upon irrigation and was, therefore, not 
only confined to certain tracts, but its labors limited to certain por- 
tions of the year. They could not be proceeded with till after 
the flood, because previous to that the soil is everywhere parched 
and full of chinks and clefts from the heat of the sun. When the 
overflowing of the Nile takes place the water soaks into the ground 
and renders it level and cultivable. When the water has run off 
sowing must immediately follow, because the soil, which is now , 
similar to a drained marsh, soon becomes hardened. The seed 
sown on the moist earth, no manure being requisite, either sinks 
into it of itself or is trodden in by cattle being driven over it.. 
Neither the spade, plough nor harrow is made use of excepting 
where the soil is too hard. In the representations the plough often 
appears of the most simple construction, drawn by oxen and 
occasionally by men. It seems to have answered the purpose of 
what we would call a cultivator or a very simply constructed drag 
than what we understand as a plough, which throws the soil clear 
over. Between the times of sowing and reaping no labor is re- 



VARIOUS CROPS FOR FOOD. 149 

quired. There are very few weeds in Egypt. Having sown in 
November the fanner begins to harvest in April. The corn is cut 
with a sickle, often merely the ears, the straw being put to little 
use and estimated accordingly. The corn is carried from the field 
in baskets, trodden out by oxen and the chaff separated from the 
grain on the floor by sifting and winnowing. This done the hus- 
bandman is at leisure till the next flood. By enabling them to 
devote so long a time to their improvement and religious feasts this 
relief from labor must have produced in a few years an incalculable 
influence on the character of the inhabitants. 

Before the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt we are told of 
the various kinds of corn that were cultivated, when these were de- 
stroyed by a hail storm, "And the flax and the barley were smit- 
ten ; for the barley was in the ear and the flax was boiled ; but the 
wheat and the rye were not smitten because they were not grown 
up." (Exodus, ix: 31-32.) The wheat and barley harvests are 
met with on the monuments ; that of rye is not easily distinguishable. 
As to flax we have not only its harvest, but the further process it 
underwent represented. 

Pliny informs us that the cultivation of cotton had become quite 
naturalized in Upper Egypt; though when it was first introduced 
we cannot exactly determine. Since, however, we find that the 
dress of the mummies was chiefly composed of cotton we are justi- 
fied in assigning a very early date to its cultivation in Egypt. 

Owing to the situation of the valley of the Nile and especially the 
Delta, the cultivation of aquatic plants constituted an important 
part of agriculture, especially in Lower Egypt. The passage re- 
ferring to this in Herodotus is, however, the ground of most that 
is now known on the subject. " Those," says he, " who live in the 
marshes have the same customs as the rest of the Egyptians ; 
but, to procure themselves easily the means of subsistence, 
they have devised the following inventions : when the river 
is full and the plains are become as a sea there springs up in 
the water a quantity of lilies, which the Egyptians call lotus. 
After they have gathered these they dry them in the sun, and then 
squeezing out what is contained within the lotus, resembling the 
poppy, they make it into loaves which they bake with the fire ; the 
root also of this lotus, which is round and of the size of an apple, is 
edible and imparts a sweet flavor. There are also other lilies, simi- 
lar to roses, likewise produced in the river ; the fruit of which grows 
on a separate stem, arising from the side of the root, in shape very 



150 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

like a wasp's comb ; in this are found many kernels of the size of 
an olive stone ; these are eaten green and dried. Of the byblus, 
which is an annual plant, after they have plucked it from the 
marshes, they cut off the top part and employ it for various pur- 
poses ; the lower part that remains, about a cubit in length, they 
eat and offer it for sale ; but such as wish to make a very delicate 
mess of the byblus, stew it in a hot pan and so eat it." 

Of the two xpvza or lilies, in this case lotus, which Herodotus 
here distinguishes, the former is yet found in abundance in the 
neighborhood of Damietta ; its stalk grows about five feet above 
the water and is still used, as we are informed by Savary, as an ar- 
ticle of food by the inhabitants. The other plant, equally celebrated 
in India was also found in Egypt. Its fruit cannot be more clearly 
defined than this has been done by Herodotus. The kernels, simi- 
lar to those of the olive, lie in the calyx, each in a cavity or cell. 
Both plants had religious allusion, among others to the realm of 
the dead and, therefore, we find them portrayed in the catacombs. 

In the royal vault opened by Belzoni, a beautiful representation 
of them is found, both in their natural colors and their stalks and 
fruits. In this tomb they often occur aud are alwags represented 
with two stalks of each hanging down, doubtless, having some sig- 
nification. Their leaves and calyxes are to be seen in every part 
as ornaments ; and the assertion of Herodotus, that the fruit grows 
upon a separate stem or stalk, is also verified, as two stalks always 
grow together, one of which bears the fruit. The byblus is the 
third plant Herodotus mentions. It was from this papyrus was 
made and it also served for food. The byblus is a water plant, 
though, according to Theophrastus, it does not grow in deep 
water. That it was manufactured at a very early age in Egypt 
into papyrus is certain, since many papyrus rolls have 
been found in the catacombs of Thebes. These rolls prove 
beyond a doubt that the literature of Egypt was much richer 
and more abundant than otherwise could have been supposed. Be- 
sides the religious writings the custom so often represented of 
drawing up documents of all public transactions must have given 
rise to the formation of archives ; and it follows as a matter of 
course that in the imperial palaces there must have been a library 
or apartment for the storing of the public records, both religious 
and political. The byblus plant grows in great abundance in one 
place in Europe, namely at the rivulet Cyane, near Syracuse. The 
Chevalier Landoline used the pith or pulp of this shrub for the 



KINDS OF WOODS AND CATTLE. 151 

preparation of papyrus and succeeded admirably in his undertaking. 
By the researches and experiments of this gentleman, all the state- 
ments of Herodotus with respect to the papyrus, have been con- 
firmed. 

The wine-press was, according to Herodotus, unknown in Egypt, 
though the priests used wine ; and the people used it at certain 
festivals, but ordinarily they used a kind of beer made out of 
barley. The grape vine was not, however, altogether unknown in 
Egypt ; representations of its branches with ripe grapes growing 
thereon are found among the architectural adornments. Both the 
vintage and process of pressing the grapes are represented in the 
paintings of Eilethyia. At all events the vine could only have 
been cultivated in a few high-lying districts. Belzoni found it in 
abundance in the Fayoume about the lake Moeris. While the 
climate of Egypt did not suit for the growth of the olive it allowed 
the cultivation of a kind of sesamum, which Herodotus calls sylli- 
cyprium, and the Egyptian Kiki, from which they extracted an oil. 

Excepting the date-palm and the sycamore, of which the cases of 
the mummies were made, and perhaps that sacred tree, the persea, 
which sometimes occurs on the monuments, Egypt was destitute of 
woods, forests and tall trees. 

The tending of cattle constituted a principal branch of Egyptian 
industry, but it was closely conuected with religion and depended 
some on the situation of the lands. Where animal idolatry became 
so essential a part of the religion of the people the influence of re- 
ligion on the breeding of cattle seems to have been less than might 
be expected. Of the larger domestic animals the cow only was 
considered sacred (to Isis and never sacrificed) ; the worship of the 
bull Apis applied only to a single beast characterized by certain 
marks. The bull when adjudged clean was a common sacrifice and 
is often represented as such on the reliefs. Of the smaller domes- 
tic animals the sheep was sacred in some nomes and the goat in 
others. Swine were esteemed unclean, though at one festival they 
were offered to Osiris. 

Of the cattle breeding black cattle formed a principal branch, a 
whole caste having been named from it. They were kept in herds 
and appear in this manner upon the monuments. The ox was used 
for agricultural labor, the ploughs, such as they were, being repre- 
sented as drawn by oxen. 

The breeding of horses was also common in Egypt. The monu- 
ments afford no proof that the horse was made use of in hus- 



152 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

bandry ; he was for carriages both in peace and war, never 
for riding. To judge from the representations on the nionu- 
ments the ancient Egyptian horse was a fine animal, as he is 
now in the Nile's valley, above Egypt in Dongola. A considerable 
trade in horses was carried on with foreign countries. Solomon 
(2 Chron ix : 28) obtained horses from Egypt. In the harness and 
trappings of the Egyptians there was quite a tasteful splendor 
as is evident from the reliefs. 

Of asses and mules the breeding was always common in Egypt ; 
and from the fragments of the work of Mago we learn that the 
Carthaginians also bred them ; .so that those useful animals were 
found all over northern Africa. It has been asserted that the 
camel does not occur upon the monuments and hence it was hastily 
concluded that it was not a native of Egypt or Africa till after the 
conquest of the Arabs. But on the obelisks of Luxor the long 
necks of camels frequently occur, a fact which has been often as- 
serted and was satisfactorily confirmed by Minutoli and others. 
The Nile's valley continually exposed to overflooding was but lit- 
tle adapted to the rearing of camels ; and, therefore, we need not 
be surprised at not finding the camel on the reliefs, which repre- 
sented the husbandry of that valley. Few are ignorant of the fact 
that the adjacent tribes, the Arabians, the Midianites and others 
made the breeding of camels their chief occupation; that even in 
the time of Joseph their merchants traveled with their camels into 
Egypt. In Africa itself, moreover, the camel was bred from the 
earliest times. Camel-breeding is now the chief employment of 
the Ababdes, in the eastern mountain chain. Thence they are 
brought to the Egyptian markets (particularly to Esneh), and, 
doubtless, this was much the same in antiquity. The Arabian 
tribes south of Egypt bred them in great numbers, for they sent 
their cavalry of camels to the army of Xerses, as Herodotus assures 
us. If then the camel was not to any large extent bred in Egypt, 
it was very numerous in the adjacent countries. 

Although the nature of the country did not allow the breeding of 
sheep to any great extent yet some were bred there. At a very 
early period Jacob drove his flocks into Egypt (the Delta : Gen. 
xlvii : 1, 17). On the monuments, both single sheep and flocks 
appear. But if Egypt did not herself produce all the wool re- 
quired for her manufactures she had on her borders nations of 
shepherds, more especially in Arabia and Syria who produced it in 
great abundance and of the finest quality. 



EGYPTIAN MANUFACTURES. 153 

That all kinds of poultry were plenty in Egypt the frequent 
representations on the monuments show. The catching of water- 
birds with nets is also often portrayed. 

The Egyptian monuments are, if anything, richer in information 
regarding the manufactures than the productions of agriculture. 
Previously to our obtaining copies of the pictures taken by the 
French and others, nobody would have been likely to suppose that 
the nation had carried them to such a high degree of perfection. 
The mechanic, by accurate inspection, will here find an entensive 
field which may put him in the way to new discoveries. It will be 
sufficient here if we enumerate and describe the principal branches 
of their industries. The raw material for many of them Egypt her- 
self produced ; but not for all nor in sufficient quantity. A large 
amount of the material must have been imported. 

Of the different branches of manufacture, weaving claims our 
first attention as it undoubtedly employed a good proportion of the 
population. When the prophet (Isaiah xix:9, 10.; sets forth the 
miseries that were to befall Egypt and the laboring classes of the 
people, he mentions the weavers next to the fisherman : "Moreover 
they that work in fine flax and they that weave networks shall be 
confounded ; and they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all 
that make sluices and ponds for fish." According to Herodotus, 
weaving was the business of men, and, therefore, not merely a do- 
mestic affair, but carried on in large manufactories. The most 
beautiful specimen of a representation of the manufactures is given 
by Minutoli from the tombs of Beni Hassan. " The weaver's 
loom," says he, " is fastened to four pegs, rammed into the ground ; 
and the workman sits upon that part of the web already finished, 
which is a small chequered pattern of yellow and green. It is ob- 
servable in many colors of the early Egyptian clothes, that the by- 
sus was dyed in the wool before being weaved." Even in the time 
of Moses these manufactures had attained a wonderful perfection 
in Egypt, of which, among many others, the covers and carpets of 
the tabernacle afford a striking example. They were sometimes 
made a hundred yards long, and many of them were embroidered 
with colored thread or gold wire by way of ornament. The most 
honorable presents in the time of Joseph were costly garments. 
Not to speak of Jacob's present to Joseph of a coat of many colors, 
seethe presents which Joseph makes to his brethren (Gen. xlv: 
22.). But here the monuments also speak. In the Description 
de 1' Egypt, the Royal Tombs of Belzoni and in the work of Miuu- 



154 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

toli we see those garments in their splendid colors as fresh as ever. 
They are so different and varied that a distinction in the stuffs is 
clearly perceived. Man}' of them are so fine that the limbs are said 
to shine through ! Others, on the contrary, are coarser. The finer 
seem to be rather of cotton than of linen fabrication, though in re- 
gard to this, a positive decision seems impossible from a mere en- 
graving. For the same reason it cannot be positively asserted that 
silk is found amongst them. The King and the soldiers are usually 
dressed in short tunics ; but the latter form an exception in the pro- 
cessions ; husbandmen and laborers wear merely a white apron ; the 
priests wear long garments, often thrown round the neck in a fan- 
tastical manner. Of these many are white and many striped white 
and red ; others are starred or flowered ; and many exhibit the most 
splendid colors of the East. The fine garments call up in our mind 
the Indian muslins ; in the dazzling glitter, silk-stuffs seem to be 
resplendant. As verbal descriptions, however, can at best convey 
but a very imperfect idea of them, the readers may be referred to 
the last ten plates of the second part of the great French work upon 
Egypt, and to the first five of the Atlas of Belzoni, where garments 
of the Kings and others afford the best specimens. 

That the art of dyeing had made as great progress as that of 
weaving, is clear from what has been said. The various colors, 
white, yellow, red, blue, green and black, are met with in remarka- 
ble perfection, but without mixture. As to the materials used for 
dyeing, whether found in Egypt itself, or imported from Phoeni- 
cia, Babylon or India, it is difficult to decide. It is probable that 
the Tyrians had much of this trade, as they had a large and active 
establishment at Memphis. But even from what has been said, it 
appears certain that three or four thousand years ago, the arts of 
weaving and dyeing had been brought to an equally high degree of 
perfection in the East as they are to-day ; and from this it natur- 
ally follows that the intercourse and commerce, in a certain way, 
of those nations must have been equally great as it is to-day. It is 
hardly to be supposed that the arts should have advanced so far 
among an isolated people. Or does any one suppose that Egypt 
itself produced all the raw materials and dyes which were necessary 
to the existence of those productions? Must there not have been a 
great international intercourse or commerce here? 

Next to weaving the works in metal rank. They carry us back to 
an age when the use of iron was yet unknown in Egypt ; for, in so 
far as we can judge from the color, which is always green, all iin- 



PERFECTION OF THEIR DOMESTIC ART. 155 

plements, not of gold or silver, were made of bronze. As already 
remarked, the war chariots seem to have been entirely made of 
bronze. Their green color, their form, the neatness and lightness 
of the wheels and their beautiful ornaments all tend to prove this 
satisfactorily. A great portion of their weapons were likewise of 
bronze ; not only the swords, but also the bows and quivers. 
Both these and the cutlery, represented among the hieroglyphics, 
are always green. Whence did Egypt procure this great quantity 
of bronze? We find no trace of mines in proper Egypt, from 
which the metal could be obtained. Was it supplied from the 
Nubian gold mines? Diodorus, at least, informs us that all the in- 
struments used in them were made of metal. 

Not only these but all other instruments and furniture, whether 
of wood or of metal, were formed with so much elegance and such 
variety that the Egyptians, in this respect, rivaled every other na- 
tion of antiquity, not excepting the Greeks. Their beds and 
couches in those distant times may even now be taken as models. 
The silver tripods and basins, the neat spindles and baskets of the 
ladies, as now appears on the monuments, were celebrated by 
Homer. Their musical instruments, especially their harps, sur- 
pass in the elegance of shape and gracefulness of finish our mod- 
ern ones. The richness and variety, which prevail in all these 
matters, cannot fail to give an exalted idea of the refinement of 
common and domestic life. 

Lastly, their earthenware composed an important branch of their 
manufactures. Egypt is reputed as having an excellent clay, which 
possesses the peculiar quality of imparting an agreeable coolness to 
the water kept in vessels made of it ; but it doubtless has at the 
most, only the peculiarity of being able to keep the water cool, 
that is, of keeping out the heat. This earthenware was not only in 
common use but was also kept in the tombs for the preservation of 
the mummies of the sacred animals, such as the ibis and others. 
The variety and beauty of the shapes into which it was moulded 
may be compared with the Grecian ; they are also found painted of 
the most exquisite colors. So far as to the agriculture and manu- 
factures of the ancient Egyptians. A few words now as to their 
commerce. 

From the natural advantages, which it possesses, in the way of 
productiveness and geographical position, it would seem reasonable 
that Egypt should be one of the most important commercial coun- 
tries of the world. Neither the despotism under which it groaned 



156 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

for Gentries and still groans nor the continual sanguinary struggles 
of which it was the scene have been able to deprive it altogether of 
the benefit of those advantages. What we call natural ordinations 
or determinations may be partially impeded, as regards their exe- 
cution, but, it does seem, cannot be totally frustrated. 

It is on the banks of large rivers running through countries 
rich in natural productions that an extensive and lively commerce 
would most easily be expected to be formed. Such streams facil- 
itate the intercourse of the inhabitants of the countries through 
which they run ; and a lively trade at home, which promotes 
national industry, is always a certain step towards the acquisition 
of a foreign trade and a sure foundation of home wealth. The 
course of foreign trade depends in a great measure upon external 
circumstances and relations which cannot always be controlled ; but 
internal commerce, being a sole home work, only declines with 
the nation itself. The Egyptians dwelt on a river such as here de- 
scribed, which afforded them all these advantages and history 
proves that they profited by them. Even during the dry season it 
is navigable from Elephantis, without interruption, to the Medi- 
terranean ; and the navigation against the stream is facilitated by 
the north winds which prevail during certain periods of the year. 

The ships or boats, which they used on the Nile and which they 
called Baris, were entirely constructed of native materials. They 
cut boards, three feet in extent, from the root of the papyrus, a low 
tree, of the same wood was the mast, and the ropes of the bark of 
the byblus. Herodotus describes the strueture of those vessels and 
informs us that there were some of them of many thousand 
talents burden. We have a clearer idea of them now from the 
pictures of them preserved in the tombs of Elithyia, wherein it is 
seen they were impelled both by sails and oars. 

Even in the age of Moses the boats of the Nile were known and 
common. But when afterwards, the country became everywhere, 
especially on its western side, intersected by canals, navigation 
remained almost the only convenient way for natural intercourse 
and was in fact, the only way during the floods. The establishment 
of canals was not, according to Diodorus, designed merely for the 
extension of the inundation, but for the promotion of the national 
trade and intercouse, and thus at an early day the Egyptians pro- 
fited by the advantages their country afforded them, and sailors 
formed quite a numerous caste. 

It is during the hot months, when the coolness of the water make s 



INTERNAL COMMERCE. 157 

a residence on it agreeable that the inundation takes place. The 
Egyptians, according to Herodotus, celebrate every year six national 
festivals, all in the cities of Lower Egypt ; and it appears that at 
least one of them, that of Diana or Artemis at Bubastis, fell in this 
season. The people, on this occasion, sailed from city to city ; and 
the inhabitants of each successively joining the throng their number 
at last increased to the average of 700,000. It could hardly be 
otherwise than that these festivals, in which the people indulged in 
Bacchanalian luxury (for in this single festival of Artemis, 
according to Herodotus, more wine was consumed than in all 
the year beside), should become so many fairs and markets; and 
these must have much promoted the internal commerce of Egypt, 
as has been found to be the case among other nations. 

The internal trade intercourse to which the government, accord- 
ing to Diodorus, gave particular attention, partly by prescribing 
the forms for the security of loans, partly by regulating the rate of 
interest, and partly by allowing the creditor to indemnify himself 
by the property, not the person, of the debtor ; this internal trade, 
I say, became the parent of foreign commerce by increasing the 
wealth of the nation. An opinion has, indeed, been largely enter- 
tained that the Egyptians were an isolated nation; that carefully 
avoiding all communication with foreigners and confining them- 
selves within their own country they were to themselves alone in- 
debted for their civilization. This notion, in which there may 
possibly have been a grain of truth, has doubtless been modified 
and corrected in various ways by the foregoing investigations. 

But the notion seems to have primarily arisen from the contempt 
which the Egyptians, in common with other nations, who observed 
a certain diet and dress and mode of life prescribed by religion, had 
for foreigners ; and, in addition to this, because they not only had 
no maritime navigation themselves, but had sought previously to 
the time of Psammetichus, to prevent all foreigners from coming 
by sea to their country. Before getting through, and in view of 
what has gone before, we may be able to account for those pecu- 
liarities without having recourse to religious principles. 

The timber material for building sea vessels is neither produced 
in Egypt nor in any contiguous country of northern Africa. The 
early Pharaohs built their warships upon the Arabian Gulf and the 
Red Sea. The later Pharoahs who succeeded Psammetichus, as 
well as the Ptolemies, could not fit out fleets until they had control 
of the Phoenician forests; and history shows what bloody wars 



158 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

were carried on between the Ptolemies and the Seleucidae for the 
possession of those countries. But it is easily seen that the 
Tyrians and Sidonians were little inclined to make the Egyptians 
a maritime people, however the latter might have desired it. 

One reason why the ancient Egyptians prohibited all access to 
their country by sea may be found in the state of maritime com- 
merce in ancient times. Most if not all of the nations who traded 
on the Mediterranean were addicted to piracy and made it their 
business to kidnap men from the coasts and use them as their 
slaves or sell them elsewhere. It was, therefore, natural that a 
people who had no maritime force to oppose to them should allow 
them under no pretense to land on their coasts. 

Some facts, however, do appear, which although they come to 
us with an air of romance about them, would still lead us to sup- 
pose that there were occasional deviations from this rule. Accord- 
ing to Homer and the story of the Egyptian priests to Herodotus 
both Paris and Menelaus sailed into Egypt ; and Diodorus mentions 
a seaport, Thonis, to which he assigns a high antiquity. Even the 
colonies which emigrated from Egypt into Greece, such as those of 
of Danaus and Cecrops, for example, presuppose an acquaintance 
with navigation ; but we must allow that these may have been car- 
ried over in Phoenician vessels. 

It is known, however, that among the ancient nations the amount 
of trade a nation possessed could not be estimated from the amount 
of its navigation and tonnage, as laud trade was the most import- 
ant ; and the geographical situation of Egypt afforded it great 
advantages, as soon as a connection between Afrioa and Asia, or 
between Ethiopia and Northern Africa became established. Egypt 
was so placed as to make it a central point for the caravan trade; 
and such she has become and continued to be till our time, notwith- 
standing navigation has so much diminished the great extent of the 
overland trade. 

All Egypt, it is true, shared in these advantages, which were 
more peculiar to Upper Egypt or Thebaid. This country was so 
situated as to form, at a very early period, one of the most consid- 
erable staples for general trade. Placed at the northern extremity 
of the Nubian desert it became the mart for the produce of the inte- 
rior of Africa and the countries beyond the desert. The situation 
of Upper Eg}'pt, in relation to rich commercial countries, leads us as 
Denon (ii, p. 195) truly and elegantly remarks to imagine them all 
as it were close together : " When we reckon," says he, " the num- 



COMMERCE WITH NEIGHBORING NATIONS. 159 

ber of days required for each journey, when we see the means be- 
fore us of accomplishing those journeys, the distance uo longer 
appears so great, the length of the way seems to vanish. Gidda 
and Mecca, on the Ked Sea," continues he, "were neighboring 
towns to that in which he resided. India seemed to unite with 
them. On the other side the oases were but three days journey 
from us ; they were no longer as unknown lands. From oasis to 
oasis, which were two days journey distant from each other, we 
approached Sennaar, the capital of Nubia ; and Darfour which lies 
on the road and trades with Timbuctoo. After a forty days' 
journey to Darfour it requires but another one hundred to Tim- 
buctoo." These remarks from an explorer, experienced in what he 
is speaking about as to those southeastern countries, throws a much 
clearer light upon the facility of intercourse among those nations 
than the most learned commentariau, not acquainted as he with the 
subject, could be expected to do. 

Thus was had by Egypt the advantage of possessing the commodi- 
ties most in request and the greatest facilities of disposing of them. 
We cannot, therefore, be surprised that those countries in which 
agriculture and commerce flourished for so many centuries should 
have become the most opulent and powerful in the world ; that 
here should have been erected those magnificent temples under 
whose protection the trade was carried on ; and that here should 
have been erected the hundred-gated Thebes, the great storehouse 
and staple of the world, and which Homer (Illiad ix, 381) mentions 
as celebrated in his day. 

The great importance of this southern commerce to those coun- 
tries by which it was carried on, when favored by exterior circum- 
stances, as well as its great extent and liability to local fluctuations 
from various causes, is shown by Makrizi, an Arabian writer of the 
Middle Ages. " For two centuries, from 1074 to 1280," says he 
(Memoirs sur l'Egypte, ii., p. 162), "the road from Egypt and 
Asia to Mecca passed through the desert of Eidab. From another 
quarter came the merchants of India, Yemen and Abyssinia by sea 
to the port of Eidab, on the Arabian Gulf (22° 30' N. Lat.), and 
thence traversed the desert to Egypt. The desert was, at this time, 
always covered with caravans of pilgrims and merchants, journey- 
ing to and fro ; whole loads of pepper and other spices were often 
left by the wayside until the return of their owners ; and although 
so many were continually passing none thought of removing or in- 
juring them. The harbor of Eidab was, at that time, the most fre- 



160 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

quented in the world, as well by the vessels of India and Yemen as 
by the barks which ferried over the pilgrims. Its inhabitants de- 
rived immense sums from these sources ; they imposed a duty upon 
every load of meal and let vessels to the pilgrims, which curried 
them to Gidda and back again ; but after the time above mentioned 
its commerce declined and was finally shifted to Aden and Ormtis. 
Eidab became again a desert, but Ormus, although situated on a 
ivaterless island, became one of the richest, most splendid and lux- 
urious towns in the world." 

By the preceding inquiries we have become somewhat acquainted 
with the countries with which Egypt was commercially connected, 
and the roads by which that connection was kept up. By this, 
Egypt obtained a vast quantity of the most valuable foreign com- 
modities ; from Ethiopia she obtained gold, ivory, etc. ; from 
Arabia, incense, and from India, spices ; Greece and Phoenicia 
supplied her with wine, and from the African deserts she procured 
fine salt in abundance. In exchange for these Egypt had to offer 
the first and most indispensable necessaries of life; her fertility 
made her the oldest granary for corn ; and in the weaving both of 
linen and cotton she had attained very early to a high degree of ex- 
cellence. 

The frequent mention of Egyptian products both by Hebrew and 
Greek writers show that they had a very extensive sale. In the 
age of Herodotus Egyptian linen was greatly esteemed by the 
Greeks ; and, according to Scylax, it was one of the articles of the 
Carthaginian trade on the distant coasts of western Africa. The 
Tyrian dyes, it is probable, first procured the full estimation for 
those articles (see Ezek. xxvii : 7) ; and proofs are found that car- 
pets and garments were the principal goods imported by the Syrians 
from Egypt. 

The Tyrians had, as already observed, a settlement at Memphis 
in Middle Egyyt. Herodotus places it near the sanctuary (r/.asvu?) 
of Proteus, within which stood a temple dedicated to " Venus, the 
friend of strangers." It was called the camp of the Tyrians and 
was an establishment for trade under the protection of a sanctuary, 
similar to the one, which we shall speak of, presently formed by 
the Greeks at Naucratis. 

Of no less importance to Egypt than her manufactures was her 
corn trade. This country, even in her youth, was the granary of 
adjacent countries, which, by the nature of their soil, were not so 
well adapted for agriculture as she. In Jacob's time an unproduc- 



.EGYPTIAN COMMERCE. 161 

tive harvest in Egypt seems to have caused a slight famine in Syria ; 
and as soon as it became known that the Egyptians had corn in 
abundance stored up from previous harvests caravans were sent 
thither without delay in order to supply the deficiency by importation 
(Gen. xlii:5). Arabia, also, imported considerable corn from 
Egypt, and on this account it was that the Egyptian government 
endeavored to connect the Nile by means of a canal with the Ara- 
bian Gulf; now the Red Sea. 

When Egypt had secured its great fruitf ulness by the digging of 
the lake Moeris this trade must have become more extensive and 
regular ; a failure, at least in Lower Egypt, being rendered thereby 
physically impossible. That less notice is taken of this in the early 
ages than in the times of the Ptolemies and Romans ought not to 
create surprise. The exportation in the early ages was by land 
and it is in the nature of laud trade to be less conspicuous than that 
by sea ; and the less noticeable the less liable to competition and the 
more regular in its course for long periods. 

Our knowledge of the African caravan trade, for example, may 
be considered a discovery of modern times and yet the fact is in- 
controvertible that it has continued with few interruptions for many 
centuries. An example, quoted by Aristotle (De Re Famil. op. ii, 
395), in which an attempt to interdict the exportation of corn ren- 
dered impossible the payment of the public taxes shows how impor- 
tant and necessary this trade must have been for Egypt. There is 
no other country in the eastern hemisphere, perhaps in the world, 
where the fruitfulness of the soil, the little labor required, the cer- 
tainty of produce, and the profit derived from exportation concur 
in so great a degree to stimulate the inhabitants to agriculture ; and 
where its fostering and protection were so evidently the best policy 
of the ruling classes. 

Local circumstances were the cause that, notwithstanding their 
extensive commerce the Egyptians themselves never engaged in the 
exporting trade. The geographical position of Egypt rendered it 
the great thoroughfare of commerce, as the great trading routes from 
South Africa and Asia ran through it; and its own native produc- 
tions, moreover, were of such a kind and always in such demand 
that they were not compelled to carry them to a foreign market ; 
but could, like a storekeeper, quietly wait until necessity or an idea 
of profit induced purchasers to come and fetch them. As remarked 
before the African caravans were chiefly composed of nomadic 
shepherds, who were employed as carriers, and not to any great 
11— b 



162 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

extent of the inhabitants of cities or of people who had fixed habi 
tations. Egypt still remains a principal seat of the caravan trade ; 
yet but few of its inhabitants form part of those traveling commu- 
nities, which are chiefly composed of the nomad tribes of interior 
Africa. 

So far as we can discover, such was the state of Egyptian trade 
during the flourishing period, and that in which it continued with- 
out any remarkable change down to the time of Psammetichus. He, 
however, inaugurated some changes even during the dodecarchy 
and while he resided at Sais, by opening Lower Egypt to the 
Greek and Phoenician merchants ; the products of the Delta were 
now advantageously exchanged for the manufactures of Phoenicia 
and Greece, whereby he did not fail to make for himself friends in 
those foreign countries. Although history be silent concerning the 
effect on Egypt which their conquests produced and their almost 
uninterrupted wars with the Phoenican cities, still we know it must 
in the issue have been rather disadvantageous, although in the pro- 
gress somewhat profitable to Egypt. 

In the reign of Amasis, however, the whole internal commerce 
of Egypt underwent a remarkable change. This prince who greatly 
admired the Greeks and was much given to luxury and licentious- 
ness, opened at last to foreign merchants the mouths of the Nile, 
which had so lonjj been barred against them ; a concession which 
led to important changes in the normal and political character of 
the nation. 

Naucratis, a city of the Delta, situated on the Canopian arm of 
the Kile, near whose mouth Alexandria, the seat, tor a time, of the 
Ptolemaic dynasty, was afterwards erected, was assigned to such 
Greek merchants as desired to settle in Egypt. The commercial 
states of Greece were at the same time permitted to build temples 
in certain places for the accommodation of their traveling mer- 
chants, and which might also serve as marts for the merchandise, 
which they should send into Egypt. 

The rivalry of the Greeks, especially those of Asia Minor, in their 
endeavor to profit by this privilege, is the surest proof of its im- 
portance. The principal and largest of those temples, which was 
called Hellenium, was founded by nine Greek colonial cities of 
Asia Minor, namely, by the Ionian colonies of Chios, Teos, Pho- 
caea, and Clazomenae ; by the Doric colonies of Rhodes, Cnidus, 
Halicarnassus and Phaselis ; and by the Aeolian colony of Mity- 
leue. Although afterwards many other towns claimed credit for 



ANCIENT .EGYPTIAN COMMERCE. 163 

having taken a share in it, Herodotus assures us that those claims 
were without foundation. The Aegintae erected besides a particu- 
lar temple for themselves, which they dedicated to Jupiter; the 
Samians another consecrated to Juno, and those of Miletus an- 
another consecrated to Apollo. 

Under such restrictions as prudence seemed to him to dictate 
Amasis at first granted this permission to the Greeks. Their ves- 
sels were only allowed to enter the Canopian arm and they were 
obliged to land at Naucratis. If a ship happened to enter another 
mouth it was detained, and the captain was deprived of his liberty 
unless he swore that he was forced through necessity to do so. 
This done he was obliged to sail to Naucratis, or, if continual 
north winds prevented this, he had to send his freight in small 
Egyptian vessels round the Delta to Naucratis. 

However strictly those rules were primarily enforced they must 
soon have fallen into disuse ; as, after the conquest of Egypt by 
the Persians, the mouths of the Nile were made open to all nations. 

The Egyptains, however, soon experienced the good effects of 
the liberality of Amasis ; every part of Egypt enjoyed more pros- 
perity than it ever had before, and the reign of this king was re- 
garded as one of the happiest that the country had experienced. 
The dead capital, which had accumulated by a long trade with the 
gold countries, was now put into circulation ; the new wares, im- 
ported by the Greeks, gave rise to new wants ; and, as such an 
extensive novel market now opened, new branches of industry nat- 
urally sprung up. 

Tills general movement of trade had the most noticeable effect 
in the extension and improvement of agriculture. " The Egypt- 
ians," says Herodotus, "had never before turned to so good ac- 
count the produce of their fields," a natural consequence of the 
ready sale which they now found for their agricultural products in 
Europe and Asia. By the enactment of certain regulations one of 
which obliged every citizen under a heavy penalty to give annually 
an account to the chief of his district of the means by which he 
obtained his livelihood Amasisexerted himself to promote industry 
and commercial activity. 

But, as the event proved, Egypt, in some measure, purchased this 
prosperity by sacrifice of her national character. The Greek mer- 
chants and their agents who now formed a separate and influential 
caste, under the name of interpreters now spread over all Egypt; 
and introduced with their Greek wares Greek manners and ideas. 



164 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Such a change as this must, however, have come sooner or later, 
even without the intervention of Amasis ; the Egyptians could 
scarcely have preserved their former government and customs, after 
they had begun by conquests and treaties to come into close politi- 
cal contact with foreign nations. But, though the comparison of 
Egyptian and Greek deities might cause some slight change in reli- 
gious notions, the deeply rooted institution of castes was a strong 
barrier against the introduction of novelties. 

Upon the Egyptian commerce, especially that carried on by 
land, the Persian invasion must at first have had an unfavorable 
influence. Cambyses directed his armaments exactly against those 
places, which happened to be the principal seats of the caravan 
trade ; against Ammonium and the principal places in Ethiopia ; and 
though his bad success rendered this interruption only temporary, 
yet the re-establishment of the ancient course became difficult, in 
proportion as it had been regular before. 

After, however, the first storms had subsided Egypt appears to 
have revived, especially under the mild government of Darius. 
The annual tribute which he imposed upon the country, and to- 
wards whose payment the neighboring Libya, Barca and Cyrene 
contributed, amounted to only seven hundred talents. To this, 
however, is to be added the corn required for the maintenance of 
the Persian garrison at Memphis (in which it is said 120,000 men 
were for a time quartered) ; all of which together would seem to 
have made a tax sufficiently large for Egypt. Of Darius the Egyp- 
tians always bore a grateful rememberance, notwithstanding the 
frequent revolts against the Persians. 

When, in about thirty years after the death of Darius, Herodo- 
tus visited Egypt, the trade with Ethiopia and the interior of Africa 
had again revived. At this time any one could acquaint him with 
the general state of trade and with the chief routes leading to 
Meroe" and Libya. He, moreover, enumerates the chief articles of 
trade which were imported at this period from the southern coun- 
tries as well as the productions of Ethiopia (iii. 114). Any loss, 
which Egypt sustained in the land trade, was, at this time, fully 
made good by her maritime trade with the Greeks, which was less 
exposed to interruption and must have increased in activity in pro- 
portion as the hatred felt by both nations for the Persians brought 
them more frequently into contact and strengthened their connec- 
tion. 

Though it did occasion some few deviations from its course in 



FOREIGN' INVASIONS OF JEGYPT. 165 

Asia, the Persian dominion taken altogether did not prove hurtful 
to commerce. Under its sway the Phoenician towns lost nothing 
of their splendor, it made the peoples of Asia better acquainted with 
each other ; and the lively intercourse to which it gave rise must in 
consequence of the continual intercourse between Egypt and Asia 
have benefited the trade of the Nile's valley. But Egypt was 
affected fur beyond this by the downfall of the Persian empire, an 
event which in its time gave rise to a new order of things, and 
which, in its place, succeeding pages may through some light upon. 

The end of the splendid period of the Pharoahs is placed between 
the years 800 and 700 B. C. It was probably about the year 750 
B. C. that Sabacus, the Ethiopian, conquered Thebes and all Up- 
per Egypt ; but it appears that the two dynasties of Tanis and 
Bubastis continued in Lower Egypt as contemporaries, if not as 
tributaries to this Ethiopic-Egyptian dynasty. The predictions of 
Isaiah concerning Egypt, which occupy about the whole of the 
19th chapter of his book, were delivered perhaps a little before 
this time, and indicate the affairs of Egypt to have been in that 
period in an unsettled, if not in a stormy condition. Powerful 
convulsions must have distracted the country at this time of which 
the history in Herodotus only mentions the result, namely, that 
the Egyptians shook off the yoke of Sethos, the priest king* and 
instituted a government of twelve princes, to each of whom a partic- 
ular district of Egypt was allotted. It may possibly have been that 
this division was made according to the then division of the land 
into nomes, for De Pauw ( Recherches stir les Egyptiens, torn, ii, p. 
324), says that this was the exact number of nomes which existed 
at this time in Egypt. It would seem from the accounts given by 
Herodotus from the priests that those dodecarchi were taken from 
the warrior caste and that it was intended that they should be sub- 
servient to the authority of the sacerdotal college and the chief 
priest, its head. If this were the intention the plan was soon after 
frustrated by Psammetichus, to whom the government over Sais, 
in Lower Egypt, was entrusted ; for, by the actual help of Greek 
mercenaries, he expelled the other eleven rulers and took upon 
himself the sole dominion of Egypt. 

Thus, according to the account in Herodotus (a differentiation of 

* Says Rawlinson, Herodotus, Bk. ii, p. 219, note: Sethos, whom Herodotus calls a contempo- 
rary of Sennacherib, is unnoticed in Manetho's lists; and as Tirhafea was king of the whole coun- 
try from Nepata, in Ethiopia, to the frontier of Syria, no other Pharaoh could have ruled at that 
time in Egypt. We, may therefore conclude that Herodotus has given to a priest of Ptah the 
title of king." 



166 CRKATOR AND COSMOS. 

the same is shown farther on), Psammetichus re-established the 
rule of the Pharaohs and his reign forms an epoch in Egyptian 
history. From the time of his attaining to the sole dominion down 
to the time of the Persian invasion, under Cambyses, Herodotus 
reckons it at one hundred and thirty years, viz. : Psammetichus, he 
reigned after the fifteen years of the dodecarchy thirty-nine years 
(617 B. C.) ; Necho, seventeen years; Psammis, six years; Apries, 
twenty-five years; Amasis, forty-four years ; Psammenett, ayearand 
a half.* During the whole of this period Egypt continued as one gov- 
ernment and kept up a constant communication with foreign nations, 
both Greek and Asiatic. It numbered among its rulers some princes 
who were men of considerable parts and with happy results to that 
country made it, in effect, a maritime power. The obscurity, there- 
fore, which surrounds the early history of Egypt, becomes gradu- 
ally dispelled, and the narrative of Herodotus, which says or 
implies that the Egyptian history here begins to have a higher 
degree of probability, becomes the more authentic ; and we can 
also compare this history with that of the Jews, who, in their 
books, frequently refer to Egypt, with which country that people 
were in various ways historically connected. 

. In his interesting work, " The Pharaohs and their People," Mr. 
E. Berkeley appears to understand the Assyrian empire to have 
mixed a good deal in Egyptian affairs for a century or two prior to 
the time of Psammetichus ; and as the Assyrian empire, both first 
and second, as so-called, has made such a considerable figure in 
history, involving in its somewhat transient conquests not only 
Egypt but the Jewish and other surrounding nations, it will be 
found eminently fitting for me to fill in here whatever may tend to 
throw light upon this subject, still keeping within my intended 
limits. 

Mr. Berkeley, after tracingthe history of the Israelites and show- 
ing that they had existed in the tribal state, in effect without an 
organized national government until the time of Solomon, expresses 
himself as of the opinion that the Egyptian influence is traceable in 
the Jewish court after the marriage of Solomon with the daughter 
of a Pharaoh, who reigned somewhere in the Delta, but that the 
alliance which this brought about between Egypt aud Israel was of 
only short duration. Solomon having passed away a contention 
arose between Rehoboam, his son, aud Jeroboam, a leader of the 



* Necho and Apries are mentioned in the chronicles and prophets as Pharaoh Necho and 
Pharaoh Hophra. 



WORSHIP OF THE APIS BULL. 167 

people, as to certain questions of dominion; and when Sheshonk 
(Shishak) the first king of the twenty-second Egyptian dynasty 
(which dynasty Mr. Berkley as well as Brugsch Bey appears to 
think of Assyrian origin, and which appears to me to have been 
such in a female but not in the male line) when this Shsehonk, I 
say, was on the throne and the fugitive Jeroboam arrived in Egypt, 
it was not with the son of Solomon but with Jeroboam that the 
world came to know Sheshonk was in alliance. 

Soon after this Sheshonk invaded Judaea, sacked Jerusalem and 
carried off not only the treasures he found in the temple, but in 
the newly erected and furnished palace. He also despoiled many 
of the cities of the Levites, who had remained faithful to the house of 
David and the service of the temple. The names of the towns sub- 
dued by Sheshonk in this campaign both in the kingdom of Judah 
and of Israel are found inscribed on the walls of the temple at Kar- 
nak. They are about 100 in number as entered in vol. II. pp. 
208-9, of Brugsch Bey's work, " Egypt under the Pharaohs." 

When we reflect that Jeroboam had set up at Bethel and Dan a 
rival worship to that of the temple at Jerusalem it will not be diffi- 
cult for us to understand the cause of the hostility of the Levites 
to the government which had instituted it. The forms of the wor- 
ship set up by Jeroboam were, doubtless, after the pattern, which 
he had seen in Egypt and adopted, perhaps partially out of defer- 
ence to the opinions of Sheshonk and as a pledge of his firm alli- 
ance to him. It was under the dynasty of which Sheshonk was the 
first king that the worship of Apis was carried to such a remarkably 
extravagant height in Egypt. In the Serapeum, the burial place 
of the sacred bulls, there are still preserved, if not destroyed very 
recently, the tablets which record their installation, death and in- 
terment. It was the living animal which in Egypt was worshiped, 
but an image of this, a golden calf, was set up by Jeraboam in 
Bethel and Dan. This dynasty consisted of nine successive kings, 
and it is the successive deaths and interments of the Apis bulls 
which we find to form nearly all the events recorded during their 
successive reigns. From the conspicuity given to the winged, 
human-headed bulls and lions among the monuments discovered by 
Layard at Nineveh, Koyunjik, etc., I would think that not only 
the bull but the lion, or representations in which the ideas of these 
were thus compounded, were objects of worship among the ancient 
Assyrians. 

Tiglath-Pileser II. ( 744-726 B. C.) was the founder of the second 



168 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Assyrian empire,* which was destined to be for more than a century 
the scourge of every neighboring nation. The smaller states which 
had risen to power on the fall of the first Assyrian empire, instead 
of mutually combining against a foreign foe, continued their wonted 
rivalry and bitter antagonism, thus preparing the way for their easy 
conquest by the common enemy. The two dominions into which 
the kingdom of Solomon had divided were at enmity with each other 
and both were constantly at fend with the king of Syria. Ahaz, on 
his accession to the throne of Judab, being hard pressed by the 
assaults of the Edoinites and Philistines and frightened by the news 
of a coalition formed by the kings of Syria and Israel to dethrone 
him and set up a man of their own choice in his stead, in an evil 
hour, declared himself the vassal of Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, 
and sent the treasures of the temple as an offering to his new 
master. The Assyrian king, upon this, quickly advanced from 
Nineveh, took Damascus, the capital of Syria, carried its people 
away cnptive and destroyed the power of Syria. He also attacked 
the Israelitish territory east of the Jordan and carried its inhabi- 
tants into captivity. His successor, Shalmaneser, crossed the Jor- 
dan, and, marching upon Samaria, reduced Hoshea, king of Israel, 
to vassalage. Hoshea did not, however, remain long under this 
yoke, but ceasing to pay tribute to Shalmaneser, sought the aid of 
Sabacho (the So of 2 Kings, xvii : 4), the now king of Egypt and 
Ethiopia. We learn that the forces sent from Egypt to assist the 
king of Israel at this time were routed and Hoshea was carried 
captive to Assyria. During the three years' siege of Samaria 
(2 Kings, xvii : 5) Shalmaneser died, but his immediate successor, 
Sargon, after defeating the Egyptian forces and capturing Ashdod, 
brought the siege of Samaria to a close in 721 B. C, and carried 
the people of the land into captivity to Assyria " and placed them 
in Halah and in Habor, by the river of Gozan and in the cities of 
the Modes." Seemingly unable to afford any efficient help Egypt 
became an asylum for some of the outcasts of Israel. 



* According to Ctesias, the Assyrian empire commenced in the 22d century B. C, with 
Ninus, and Nineveh, the capita], founded by that monarch, was destroyed by the joint power 
of the Medes and Babylonians in about 875 B. C. Rawlinson, however, in the inscriptions 
understands it thus: While the Assyrian monarchs claim generally for their empire a remote 
antiquity, still the Assyrian empire in its full sense commenced, according to Sennacherib, 
in or about the year 1303 B. C. Twenty-three names of successive kings are given from the 
time of the conqueror, circa 1303, to Sennacherib, " all guaranteed by contemporary or nearly 
contemporary records," which Rawlinson considers to be confirmatory of the date given by 
Sennacherib and approximating to that of Herodotus, the latter having its commencement 
circa 1270 B. C. 



ASSYRIAN CONQUESTS OF PALESTINE. 



ir»9 



To the end of his days Ahaz, king of Judah, appears to have re- 
mained tributary to Assyria ; but his son, Hezekiah, adopting a 
different policy, cast off the Assyrian yoke and sought the alliance 
of Taharak (Tirhakah) the king of Egypt and Ethiopia. This 
Tirhakah had spent many years in endeavoring to assure his own 
sovereignty over the land he claimed to rule. Upon Egypt the 
Assyrian King had cast longing eyes ; and the Delta, during this 




ASIATIC IMMIGRANTS GOING INTO EGYPT. 



dynasty, being always in a state of disaffection, arising from the 
pretensions of rival princes, it was a risky business for the Ethiopian 
King of Egypt to undertake military enterprises beyond the 
borders. 

Over Palestine meantime Assyrian invasion had swept. Sargon 
had taken Ashdod; Sennacherib marched upon Lachish ; both of 
these places lay on the road to Egypt, towards which country the 
Assyrian had been gradually advancing over the ruins of the con- 
quered states. Forty-six fenced cities of Judah, besides smaller 
towns were taken and pillaged by the invaders and Hezekiah was 
besieged in Jerusalem. In this condition he sends his humble sub- 
mission and arrears of tribute to Sennacherib, encamped before 
Lachish. At the same time he dispatches messengers through the 
desert, their camels and asses laden with gifts, to implore present 



170 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

aid from the King of Egypt, who seems then to have been at Zoan 
in the Delta, making preparations to march against the common 
enemy. 

The Assyrian King seems not to have been left unaware of the 
double-dealing and secret hope of Hezekiah; having heard that 
the Ethiopian-Egyptian king had crossed the frontier at the head 
of his army to attack him, he postponed his own attack upon Lib- 
nah, and demanded of Hezekiah nothing short of an unconditional 
surrender, taunting him with his vain reliance upon that ' broken 
reed,' the King of Egypt. Here the curtain falls upon this scene; 
but the silence is broken by the exulting cry of the Hebrew prophet 
(2 Kings xix) and by Byron's Epic " The Assyrian came down 
like awolf on the fold," etc. A fair inference would be that the 
Assyrian king was in a state of anxiety as to the condition of his 
home government, fearing the movement of some pretender to the 
throne in case of his possible defeat by the Egyptians and that this 
hastened his return. 

Thus did Egypt and Judah breathe freely again though not for 
a long time. Although Sennacherib was much engaged in war 
during his after [life yet he left to his son, Esar-haddon (680-668 
B. C.) the prosecution of the war against Egypt. At this time 
Judah took no part in the terrible struggle which ensued and re- 
mained itself unmolested. 

Tirhakah, the Egyptian King, had entered into an alliance with 
the King of Tyre against the common enemy. Esar-haddon laid 
siege to Tyre, and then, advancing along the military road, trodden 
of old by the armies of Tuthmoses, and of Ramesses, in the oppo- 
site direction, entered Egypt. (Vide Rawlinson's 4 Great Mon- 
archies, iii, p. 25 ). Tirhakah was defeated and retreated towards the 
south. Esar-haddon annexed to his dominions the whole country, 
portioning it out into twenty districts, over which he placed his 
viceroys. Then concluding a treaty with Tirhakah, he returned to 
Nineveh. Soon after this, having fallen sick, he associated with 
himself, as regent in the government, his son, Assur-bani-Pal. It 
is from the recerds which purport to have been left by the latter 
that we learn the proceedings both of his father and himself in 
Egypt. It is probable that it was, on having heard of the illness 
of Esar-haddon, that Tirhakah went North and, regardless of his 
treaty, occupied Memphis and expelled the Assyrian garrisons and 
governors. These having returned to Nineveh, reported what had 
happened ; and without delay the regent assembled a large force 



ASSYRIAN CONQUESTS IN .EGYPT. 171 

and marched into Egypt. " When," says he in his narrative, 
" Tirhakah had heard in the city of Memphis of the approach of my 
army, he numbered his hosts and drew them up in battle array. In 
a fierce battle he was put to flight. Fear seized upon him and he 
escaped from Memphis, the city of his honor, and fled away iu ships 
to save himself alive. He came to Nia, to the great city. I sent 
my servants after him, a journey of one month and ten days. Then 
he left Thebes, the city of his empire, and went up the river. My 
soldiers made slaughter in that city. Assur-bani-Pal, having rein- 
stated the governors in their respective districts, returned to Nine- 
veh with great spoil. But Tirhakah, undaunted by defeat, came 
forth again from the Nubian hills and the vassal governors found 
it convenient to enter into an agreement with him. Many of 
these being by birth Egyptians and unwilling subjects of the As- 
syrian King rather sought than avoided such an alliance; and, be- 
sides, they had all for the moment more reason to fear Tirhakah, 
who was near than the Assyrian King, who was at such a distance. 
Of this change, however, the news soon reached Nineveh. Letters 
had been intercepted by 'judges ' and the insurgent vassals were 
sent in chains to the feet of the Assyrian monarch. 

Assur-bani-Pal once more put himself at the head of his army, 
determining now to make a final settlement of matters in regard to 
the government of Egypt. In coming on the ground he found it, 
however, politic to restore Necho, prince of Memphis, the chief of 
the rebellious governors, and to uphold him against Tirhakah. But 
the hand of the Assyrian was still heavy upon the land. " Mem- 
phis, Sais, Mendes and Zoan," says he, " and all the cities they 
had led away with them, I took by storm, putting to death both 
small and great." Tirhakah, soon after this died and his successor, 
Urdamaneh, following in his steps, occupied Thebes and once more 
endeavored to wrest Egypt from the invader. Assur-bani-Pal again 
takes the field, and, compelling him to retire to the far South, takes 
dire vengeance upon Thebes. " My warriors," says he, " attacked 
the city and razed it to the ground like a thunderbolt. Gold and 
silver, the treasures of the land, precious stones, horses, men and 
women, huge apes from the mountains, my soldiers took out of the 
midst of the city as spoil. They brought it to Nineveh, the city of 
my dominion, and they kissed my feet." 

This appears to read like a romance and the statement that 
" Thebes was razed to the ground," which we know was not liter- 
ally done, might render the narrative in the judgment of a critic 



172 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

incredible as representing real events. But there may, neverthe- 
less, have been some ground for this relation, as the prophet 
(Nullum iii : 8-10) in his indignant denunciation uttered against 
Nineveh, and her King thus addressed that magnificent and cruel 
city, the translation here being mainly according to the rendering 
of Ewald and Stanley : " Art thou greater than No-Amun (the city 
of Amun, which is referred to Thebes) that was enthroned among 
the streams and the floods were round about her ; her rampart was 
upon the river and the waters her defense. Ethiopia and Egypt 
were her strength and it was infinite ; Put and Lubira were her 
helpers. Yet she was carried away .and went into captivity ; her 
young children were dashed in pieces at the top of the streets ; they 
cast lots for her honorable men and her great men were bound with 
chains." 

Supposing, which is not at all improbable, that this prophecy 
points to a destruction of Thebes by the Assyrians, which took 
place in its time, yet we find it was only a little over half a century 
later that Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, was itself destroyed at the 
hands of the Babylonians ; and in not a long time after (538 B.C.) 
Babylon was taken possession of by the Persians. 

After the sack of Thebes the successors of Tirhakah, in that 
dynasty, made no further attempt at regaining the supremacy. 
The princes who ruled in Lower and Middle Egypt, more or less as 
the vassals of Assyria, were much engaged in mutual strife, and the 
twenty satrapies established by Esur-haddon had dwindled down to 
twelve, the dodecarchy of the Greek writers. But the time had 
finally come, even while Assur-bani-Pal was still reigning that 
Assyria had no soldiers to spare either to achieve or to maintain 
foreign conquests ; and, consequently, Psammetichus, the son of 
that Necho, who had been imprisoned and restored to his govern- 
ment by Assur-bani-Pal, encountered and, by the aid of foreign 
mercenaries, defeated the Assyrian forces at Momemphis in the 
Delta, when they left Egypt to return no more. 

Psammetichus, having obtained the sole dominion by the aid of 
Phoenician, Greek and Carian mercenaries, was naturally considered 
a usurper by the bulk of the nation ; he had consequently to struggle 
with a powerful party and was obliged to keep those foreigners 
under pay in order to maintain the authority he had by their 
assistance acquired ; but, as might have been expected and as the 
event proved the very elements which should have constituted the 
strength of the throne, they had assisted to establish, brought on 



THE GREEK MERCENARIES. 173 

its infirmity and overthrow. The Greek soldiers were given lands 
in Egypt and formed a colony near Burbastis, in one of the districts 
in which a portion of the Egyptian warrior caste had resided. This 
Greek settlement was one of the principal causes of the remark- 
able change, which now took place in Egypt. The Egyptian 
warrior caste, who had been most injured by those foreigners, 
became their bitterest enemies; their lands had already, according 
to Herodotus, been taken from them ; and they were now exasper- 
ated at seeing foreigners preferred to or placed on an equal footing 
with themselves. 

To subjugation, therefore, they preferred emigration, and 
although Psammetichus, in an eminently patriarchal spirit, endeav- 
ored to dissuade them from leaving their country, yet the greater 
part evaded him, expatriated themselves, and, as before explained 
settled in Ethiopia in the district at the sources of the Nile, named 
in mv map Gojam, that is the land of the strangers. It may not 
be necessary to remark that this must have greatly diminished the 
strength of the nation, whose whole armed force originally consisted 
of one caste alone; so that although the throne was re-established, 
and the unity of the empire restored it no lwtiger possessed its 
former power. 

From this time on the Greek auxiliaries were considered as the 
sinews of the Egyptian armies ; and they formed even the body 
guard of the King. They retained their settlement at Bubastis 
(where the remains of their dwellings existed in the time of Hero- 
dotus) until the time of Amasis, who, for the protection of his 
person, removed them to Memphis. As they constituted the prin- 
cipal support of the royal power, it is probable that they came to 
have a very marked influence in the affairs of Egypt. 

At Sais was the usual residence of Psammetichus as well as of 
his immediate successor, probably, for security as the Greek mer- 
cenaries were not far distant. The successors of these moved their 
residence nearer the sea, as this better suited their political 
views. 

Memphis was, however, even at this time, considered the real 
capital of Egypt and appears in that character at the time of the 
Persian conquest and even under the Ptolemies, who, themselves, at 
least for a time, resided at Alexandria, as is shown by the inscrip- 
tion on the stone at Rosetta. After the emigration of the warrior- 
caste Psammetichus seems to have cultivated the friendship of the 
priesthood, and testified his own to them on many occasions, espec- 



174 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

ially by his erection at Memphis of the temple of Vulcan and oppo- 
site to this a splendid portico to the temple of Apis. 

The ambition of conquest evinced by the Egyptian kings 
throughout the period of the dynasty begun with Psammetichus is 
truly remarkable; in former times this did not very remarkably 
belong to the character of the nation, but now it seems to have been 
called forth by the spirit and valor of the Greek mercenaries, and 
the success which usually attended their arms. From Herodotus 
and the Jewish annals we gather that one leading object which was, 
as it were, hereditary in the Pharaohs of this dynasty, was the 
conquest of Phoenicia and Syria. The rich commercial cities of 
these countries, where for centuries immense wealth had been accu- 
mulating, proved a powerful temptation to those now haughty 
Egyptians. They effected their object only in a limited measure ; 
but their mania for conquest was punished in the usual maimer by 
other enemies equally ambitious and more powerful than them- 
selves. The representations of the expeditions and victories of the 
ancient Pharaohs, which they were accustomed to see on the Malls 
of their temples and palaces, doubtless incited them to those under- 
takings ; but the times were changed, the conditions of affairs being 
no longer the same. When the former undertook their expeditions 
there was no powerful empire in western Asia; but victorious na- 
tions now dwelt there ready to repel any invader. 

Psammetichus himself begau those aggressive movements by 
besieging Azotus, a town on the frontier of Syria. He took it at 
last, but not till after many unsuccessful attempts, which occupied 
altogether twenty-nine years ; for we cannot well imagine one siege, 
though turned to a blockade, to have lasted so long. "I know 
not," says Herodotus, " that any town ever sustained so long and 
obstinate a siege." 

His son and successor, Necho, made a more rapid and successful 
progress. He defeated the Syrians at Magdolum, captured Jeru- 
salem (supposed the Cadytis of Herodotus), and overran Syria as 
far as the Euphrates (2 Kings, xxiii: 33). " The vest which he 
wore," on the occasion of his victory at Magclo'um, " he conse- 
crated to Apollo and sent to the Milesian Brauchidae," which 
might indicate his sense of gratitude to the Greek mercenaries for 
the result of the battle. 

After this overthrow of the Syrian power a new conquering 
empire, that of the Babylonians, or Chaldaeans, arose in Central 



THE CHALDAEAN EMPIRE. 175 

Asia, and under its king Nebuchadnezzar * arrived at a high though 
transitory pitch of greatness. The Egyptian and Babylonian 
heroes met at Carchernish or Circesium, where a single battle not 
only deprived the Egyptians of all their conquests in this direction, 
but laid open their country to the danger of a hostile invasion 
(see Jer. xlvi.) ; some authors suppose that this prophecy of Jere- 
miah led to the invasion of Egypt by the victors ! 

The establishment of a navy for themselves by the Egyptians 
was one most important consequence of those foreign wars. The 
Egyptians, however, must have understood from the start that they 
could make no headway against the the Phoenician commercial 
cities without their possessing a strong navy. Necho, therefore, 
resolved to have one ; and the vigor with which he prosecuted its 
formation would naturally lead people to think that great results were 
to be expected from it. One fleet he built in the Mediterranean and 
another in the Red Sea and these he intended to combine by means 
of a canal from sea to sea by way of the Nile, the water entering 
the canal from that river a little above the city Bubastis ; this un- 
dertaking, however, which at the first glance, would be supposed to 
alter the general course of trade, was by Necho only half executed ; 
but seventy years later it was continued by Darius, the son of 
Hystaspes, the immediate successor of Cambyses. Some assert, 
while others deny that Darius finished this canal; the expression of 
Heredotus is that he "continued" it; those who deny the com- 
pletion of it by Darius say it was finished by Ptolemy II. This 
was not an original " Suez canal," which last goes direct from the 
Mediterranean to the Arabian Gulf, new Red Sea, without at all 
touching on the Nile. 

This canal was made sufficiently broad for two triremes to sail 



* Nebopallassar, the immediate predecessor of Nebuchadnezzar, was the conqueror of the 
kingdom of Chaldaea or Babylon out of the power of Assyria. " But," says Rawlinson, 
"Nebuchadnezzar is the great monarch of the Babylonian empire, which lasting only 83 
years,— from B. C. 625 to B C. 538 — was for nearly half the time under his sway." Rawlin- 
6on's 4 Great Monarchies Hi, 489. 

On the other hand he says: "Babylonia preceded Assyria as an important power in West- 
ern Asia, but became a secondary state about B. C. 1200, and only recovered its independence 
about B. C. 700." Id. vol. 1, 452. He considers the chronological scheme of Berosus, which 
he much prefers to that of Ctesias, and which assigns to the primitive Chaldaean empire a 
apace extending from about the middle of the 23d to the end of the lGth century B. C. to be 
remarkably supported and confirmed by the inscriptions. This is probably the same as that 
indicated by Philo Biblius, who assigned to Babylon an antiquity 1002 years before Semira- 
mis, who some say was contemporary with the siege of Troy, 1200 B. C. 

As to the descent of the Babylonians Rawlinson says : " They were also, it is probable, of a 
darker complexion than the Assyrians, being to some extent Ethiopians by descent. The 
Cha' ab Arabs, the present possessors of the southern parts of Babylonia, are nearly black; 
and the black Syrians of whom Strabo speaks were intended to represent the Babylonians." 
Id. iii, p. 328. 



176 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

abreast or to pass each other on it. It connected, as I have said, 
with the Nile, a little above the town of Bubastis and winding 
southward till beyond Memphis took its course thence, near the 
great stone quarries, and joined the Red Sea. Natural obstacles, 
particularly the danger of navigating the upper part of the Red 
Sea, were, doubtless, the chief reasons why it never had much in- 
fluence upon commerce ; for even in the period of the Ptolemies, 
when it must have been navigable, a caravan road was made a little 
more to the right, from Coptos to the Red sea, and the vessels 
coming from the Indian ocean went no farther than Myos Hormos. 

With their possessions in Asia the maritime expeditions of the 
Egyptians ceased. In his war against the Phoenicians Apries 
employed a fleet with which he conquered Sidon ; but it afterwards 
was allowed to fall into decay and in the time of Herodotus only 
some remnants of the vessels were left. 

That the extravagant projects of their kings were little in unison 
with the desires of the people the rebellion of the Egyptians against 
Apries, after his unsuccessful expedition against Cyrene, which 
had the effect of raising Amasis to the throne, sufficiently evinces. 
A war between the Egyptians and the mercenaries, in which the 
latter were defeated and Apries soon after lost his life, was the 
immediate consequence of this rebellion. Amasis, apparently a 
man of the people, under whom Egypt is said to have enjoyed its 
greatest happiness, preferred the blessings of peace to the risks of 
war or the splendors of conquests, and died just in time to avoid 
being a witness to the conquest of his country by Canibyses, the 
Persian. 

From what has been said, therefore, the causes which led to the 
downfall of the Pharaohs will be immediately apprehended. After 
the Ethiopian conquest and then the emigration of the warriors, 
their throne which had been founded on the unanimity of the priest 
and warrior-castes, never recovered its former stability. Upon 
the defection and emigration of the latter the nation was in effect 
left in the possession of foreigners. These strangers the monarchs 
employed in the prosecution of foreign wars which the nation 
itself disliked; and these wars and conquests, eventually 
miscarrying, proved destructive to the nation. The people's 
dislike broke out into open rebellion ; the ruling dynasty being 
overthrown a military adventurer seized the crown. He favored 
foreigners and foreign intercourse and in a manner enriched Egypt 
thereby ; but, at the same time, excited the rapacity of designing 



PERSIAN INVASION OF ^GYPT, 177 

foreign conquerors. With whom could Egypt oppose these but 
with a spiritless, undisciplined native mob, and the foreigners en- 
gaged in her service? 

For the Persian invasion many causes have been assigned, but 
whatever the pretext urged the true cause seems to have been a 
desire to possess Egypt with all its wealth. The fate of the coun- 
try was decided by a single battle and a ten days siege of the capi- 
tal, Memphis. 

The destruction of the temples and cruelty to the priests 
are notoriously imputed to Cambyses. The difference of 
the religious worship of the Persians and Egyptians may 
perhaps be considered as the cause of these proceedings, 
and of the national hatred of the Egyptians for the Per- 
sians and their frequent revolts against their authority, which hardly 
do accord with their general character, if this may be judged by 
their conduct towards the Ptolemies. " There is," says G. A. 
Hoskins, in his work of 1863, " no reason to believe that the Per- 
sian dynasty was so very hostile to the religion of Egypt. In my 
(a) 'Visit to the Great Oasis' I have given drawings of a large 
temple built there by Darius." 

We may perhaps form a more correct notion of this by consider- 
ing the whole conduct of the Persians in Egypt as a struggle not 
so immediately directed against religious opinions and usages as 
against the exclusive caste of the Egyptian priests ; but the ideas 
of religion and priest are so closely connected with each other in 
the mind of the common people that in the Persians proceeding 
against the latter they would have been most likely understood as 
waging war against the national religion. 

Under the reign of the later Pharaohs the Egyptian priest-caste 
was no longer what it had been, but its political influence, though 
weakened was not destroyed. The priesthood still formed what 
was understood as the noble class of the nation and continued to 
possess the bulk of the nation's learning and the same high offices 
of state as formerly. The interest, therefore, of the ruling caste 
and that of the foreign conquerors must necessarily have often 
clashed, and the profanation of the temples and objects of religion, 
as for example by Cambyses and Ochus, was a consequence of the 
political competition and animosity. But as all we know of the 
characters of those two men is drawn entirely from the statements 
of the Egyptian priests, who were naturally enough their enemies, 
the accounts respecting this are probably exaggerated. With the 
12— b 



178 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

history of the succeeding revolts of the Egyptians against the Per- 
sians we are but imperfectly acquainted ; and of their origin and 
the means by which the people were stirred up we have no infor- 
mation whatever. But that the priests were the principal instiga- 
tors seems evident from the fact that after the re-establishment of 
the Persian power in Egypt they were punished for it. For, 
according to Diodorus, when Artaxerses had driven away Necto- 
nebus, and brought Egypt again under his authority the persecu- 
tion of the priests began. Their temples were pillaged and even 
their sacred books taken from them ; but these they afterwards, 
through the good offices of Bagoas, got permission to redeem, by 
the payment of a large sum of money. Cambyses (B. C. 527), 
and his seven successors are set down as the 27th Egyptian dynas- 
ty, Egypt being under them a Persian province, governed by a 
satrap. Although the conduct of Darius towards the Egyptians 
was throughout remarkably mild and conciliatory, still they, being 
impatient of foreign rule, revolted from the Persians in the year 
before the death of Darius and succeeded in expelling them from 
the country; but Xerses, in his second year, again reduced them 
to subjection and appointed Achaemenes, his brother, governor of 
the country. 

Again, in the fifth year of Artaxerses {circa anno 458 B. C. ), 
the Egpytians revolted, and assisted by the Athenians they opposed 
the force of 400,000 men and 200 ships sent against them by that 
monarch. Led on by Inarus, the Libyan, the son of one Psarnme- 
tichus and by Amyrtaeus of Sais, they routed the Persians with a 
loss of 100,000 men and Achaemenes received his death wound at 
the hand of Inarus. But about four years after this, Artaxerses, 
still determining to subdue Egypt, adding 200,000 men and 300 
ships to the remnant of the former army, dispatched them into 
that country under the command of Magabazus and Artabazus, 
when after an obstinate conflict, Inarus being wounded by Mega- 
bazus, the Egyptians were put to flight. Inarus having fled with 
a body of Greeks to Byblus, a then strongly fortified place, ob- 
tained for himself and his companions a promise of pardon, but was 
afterwards treacherously crucified by Artaxerses in order to satisfy 
his mother Amytis in revenge for the death of her son and his 
brother, Achaemenes. Amyrtaeus, however, more fortunate, es- 
caped to the Isle of Elbo and in the fifteenth year of Artaxerses 
{circa 449-8 B. C), the Athenians having sent a fleet to the aid of 
the Egyptions once more a hope was entertained of restoring him 



PERSIAN DYNASTIES IN ./EGYPT. 179 

to the throne. Egypt, however, remained undisturbed, the pro- 
ject having been abandoned. It was probably about this time that 
Pausiris, the son of Amyrtaeus, was made viceroy of Egypt by the 
Persians, his father being still concealed in the marshes, and the 
post being a nominal one, surrounded as he was by the Persians, 
it was a favor that involved no risk to them. But it failed to recon- 
cile the Egyptians to the presence of their conquerors. 

The aversion to Persian rule once more led the Egyptians to re- 
volt and in the tenth year of Darius Nothus (circa 411 B. C), 
they succeeded in completely freeing their country from the Per- 
sians, when Amyrtaeus became independent master of Egypt His 
reign of six years constituted the 28th Egyptian dynasty. Having 
made a treaty with the Arabians he rendered his frontier secure 
from aggression in that quarter ; so that the government passed 
without interruption into the hands of his successors, the Mendesian 
kinfs of the 29th dynasty. Of these the first was Nepherites, who 
reigned according to Manetho, six years (although Diodorus has a 
Psammetichus to precede him) ; but in his reign Egypt enjoyed 
tranquility and was able to send aid to the Lacedemonians against 
the Persians ; bis fleet, however, of 100 ships, laden with corn for 
their armies, having put into Rhodes was captured by the common 
enemy, who had lately, unknown to the Egyptians, obtained pos- 
session of that island. 

The reign of Acoris, his successor, is set down at thirteen years 
(Circa 399-386 B. C). He, having made a treaty with the king of 
Cyprus, and secured the friendship of the Lacedemonians, and of 
Gaus, the son of Tamus, an Egyptian, who commanded the Per- 
sian fleet, remained in peace and undisturbed by the. Persians ; and 
this season of tranquility he employed in adding to the temples of 
Thebes and elsewhere, but especially to the sculptures of a temple 
at Eilethyias, which had been left unfinished by Rameses ii. Of 
Psammuthis and Muthis, who reigned each one year and of Neph- 
erites II., who reigned four months, little is known from historians 
or the monuments ; the only one of them mentioned on the latter, 
indeed, being the first, whose name Pse-mant (the son ofMant) 
is found at Thebes. 

The thirtieth dynasty of three Sebenytic kings continued, ac- 
cording to some thirty-eight years, according to Eusebius 20 ; and 
its accession is put variously at 387 and 381 B. C. The dates, 
therefore, concerning it are uncertain. During the reign of the 
first king, Nectanebo, the Persians sent a large force under Phar- 



180 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

nabazus and Iphicrates to recover Egypt; but owing to the dissen- 
sions of the two generals (Nectanebo, meantime employing well 
the time in securing the defenses of his country) the Persians were 
unable to re-establish their authority, and entangled in the Delta, 
amid the channels of the rising Nile, they were compelled to re- 
treat. The leisure, which ensued on this, Nectanebo employed in 
adorning the temples of Egypt, in many of which his name may 
still be seen ; and he is supposed to have been the last of the 
Pharaohs who erected an obelisk, which Pliny says was without 
hieroglyphics. 

After 13 years, or ten as variously stated {Circa 369 B. C.) 
Nectanebo was succeeded by Teos or Tachos, who, profiting by the 
unsettled state of the Persian dominions, and wishing still further 
to weaken that empire, entered into a league with the Lacedemon- 
ians, the determination being to attack it in Asia. To this enterprise, 
the Lacedemonians furnished a strong force, led by their king 
Agesilaus; and the Athenians, a fleet under Chabrias ; to all which 
Tachos joined his main force, assuming himself the supreme di- 
rection of the expedition. But, in the course of the campaign, his 
nephew, Nectanebo, being assisted by his father, also named 
Nectanebo, whom Tachos had made Governor of Egypt during his 
absence, made a party against him, and openly revolted. Agesilaus 
conceiving himself affronted by the treatment he had already re- 
ceived from Tachos, willingly joined the usurper; and Chabrias 
who had remained true to Tachos, happening to be recalled by the 
government at Athens, Tachos was unable to maintain his author- 
ity, and having fled to Sidon and thence into Persia, his nephew, 
Nectanebo II., was declared king (Circa, 361 B. C.) A rival 
Mendessian chief having put himself at the head of the people, and 
being favored by the incapacity of the young Nectanebo, would 
have succeeded in wresting the sceptre from him, had not the 
power and talents of Agesilaus been on his side and secured him ou 
the throne. 

Artaxerses, although he had made preparations to recover 
Egypt, died without putting forward any expedition, and was suc- 
ceeded by Ochus, or Artaxerses III. in 363 B. C, in whose reign 
some unsuccessful attempts were made to reconquer the country, 
the consequence of which was a confederacy was entered into be- 
tween Nectanebo and the Phoenicians, who were thus encouraged 
to throw off the Persian yoke. To aid them in this enterprise 
Nectanebo sent them a force of 4,000 Greeks ; but Ochus soon 



Alexander's conquest of ^egypt. 181 

after having put himself at the head of a large army, advanced and 
overran Phoenicia, and Mentor the leader of the forces sent to aid 
the Phoenicians, having deserted to the enemy, Nectanebo has- 
tened to sethis own country in a state of defense. Pelusium he 
garrisoned with 5,000 Greeks ; and with an army of 100,000 
men, of whom 10,000 were Greeks, he prepared to repel the invader. 
The chiet attack of the Persians on Pelusium was foiled and 
much confusion and terror created in their ranks; but here Nectan- 
ebo evinced his incapacity; for, seeing the Persians succeed in 
occupying an important point, and fearing lest his retreat should 
be cut off he became panic stricken and fled to Memphis. Pelu- 
sium upon this surrendered and the Persians, accompanied by 
Mentor, the traitor general, having taken all the fortified places of 
Lower Egypt, Nectanebo retired into Ethiopia and Egypt became 
once more a Persian province. 

The reign of Ochus the first king of Manetho's 31st dynasty, is 
represented as having been most cruel and oppressive. He dis- 
tinguished himself, not only by his persecution of the people, but 
by the insults he heaped upon their religion, and in his progress 
he ordered the sacred bull, Apis, to be roasted and eaten, so that 
according to Plutarch the Egyptians l'epresent him in their cata- 
logue of kings by a sword. It was in his 20th year that he recov- 
ered the country, which he then ruled for two years ; and being 
followed successively by Arses and Darius, these three complete 
Manetho's 31st dynasty, which was terminated by the conquest of 
the Persians and of Egypt by Alexander, in 332 B. C, and was 
succeeded by the Macedonians or Ptolemaic dynasty. This dy- 
nasty, in its turn, succumbed to Rome in 302 years later or in anno 
30 B. C. 

Though Egypt had long ceased to be a dominant State before its 
conquest by the Romans, yet the duration of its real and independ- 
ent power was far greater than what we find has fallen to the lot 
of most other nations. When we compare with it the brief glory 
of the Persian empire to its overthrow by the Macedonian ; the 
transitory greatness of the Babylonian of Nebopalassar and Neb- 
uachadnezzar; or even the whole period of Assyrian domination, we 
find that Egypt continued to be a prosperous State, extending its 
arms beyond its own borders and practicing the sciences and the 
the arts at home for a much longer period than any of those coun- 
tries. 



182 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

But in the unity and self-dependance of an enterprising people, 
local conditions being to them not, on the whole, unfavorable, is 
great and effectual strength. The unanimity of the priestly and 
warrior-castes for a very long course of ages before the defection 
and emigration of the latter, consequent upon the introduction 
and preferment of foreign mercenaries, gave to ancient Egypt its 
world-renowned prestige of intelligence and power. When the 
authority and respect for the priesthood declines and the military 
organization withholds its obedience a theocracy evidently contains 
in itself the seeds of its own destruction. When in ancient Egypt 
such a state of affairs came to have place, neither the enthusiasm 
of an undisciplined native people nor the swords of the foreign mer- 
cenaries availed to uphold the throne of the Pharaohs. 




CRITICAL REVIEW 



OF THE 



HISTORY OF THE Scotts OR GAE1 



EOBERT SHAW, M. A. 



AUTHOR OP 



CREATOR AND COSMOS; OF COSMOTHEOLOGIES AND INDICATIONS OF jrrCVFM 
CRITIQUE OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYFT; OF THK CHALDAEAN AM 
HEBREW AND THE CHINESE AND HINDOO ORIGINES J 
OF THE PHOENICIAN COSMOGONIES, ETC. 



REVISED. 



ST. LOUIS: 
BECKTOLD AND COMPANY. 

1889. 



Entered according to Act or Congress, In the year 1889, by 

ROBERT SHAW, 
In the Office of the Librarian 01 Congress, Washington, D, 0. 



INTRODUCTION. 



(Critique of Scottic or Gaelic History.) 

I trust the few preliminary remarks I here think it expedient to 
make to this Treatise will not be taken as in the nature of an elab- 
orate, well rounded and exquisitely finished Introduction, such as 
we sometimes find prefixed to books that are replete with fiction 
and falsehood; and, further, that it will not be taken as in the 
nature of an apology for the issuance of the treatise to which it is 
prefixed. For I here confess that I have no apology whatever to 
make for the publication of my " Critical Review of the History of 
the Scotts or Gaels of the British Isles." But, per contra, and this 
for many reasons. In the first place, it is a " critique" of the 
ancient history of a noble race of men, of men who in their vary- 
ing circumstances in all the historic ages, have proved themselves 
to be of a high order of mind and among the first orders and or- 
ganizers in human society. And, secondly, it is a " critique " of a 
history which has been much mystified and falsified by historians, 
so-called, who wrote rather in the interest of class or of certain 
preconceived systems of ideas of their own, which were false, ficti- 
tious or of the romantic order, but the publication of which, in the 
way in which they wove them in a continuous web, they, perhaps, 
thought would conduce most to the good order and good manners 
of the masses of the people in the times after them, the writers, 
than in the interest of unvarnished, simple truth. 

The subject of this Treatise being eminently an ethnological one 
necessitates that it be largely genealogical in substance as well as 
in the manner of treatment ; and the author's genealogy or rather 



11 INTRODUCTION. 

that of his family, extendiug back through the line of men of that 
race best known to the history of North Britain and Erin, being 
given, the ethnological bearing of the subjuct leaves no apology 
here necessary on account of its insertion; But, per contra, the 
sensible and intelligent reader will in it perceive a certain 
guarantee of the proper treatment of the subject; for, who, I ask, 
would consent to have inserted in the list given of his ances- 
tors the name of a man, who he had fair reason to suppose was 
not an ancestor of his, a thought which implies great care in the 
treatment here. And, besides, the genealogical way of treatment, 
where this is possibly attainable, as it happens to be in this case, is 
well known to be by far the most true and exact way of treatment 
of an ethnological subject. If it be not the only way it is certainly 
the true way and enables the historical critic after he has passed 
back beyond the chronologically certain period to determine the 
chronology with comparative exactness. This genealogical line of 
the Gaels, connecting, as it does, with that of the Shepherd kings 
of the race of Menes, enables the chronology to be determined for 
a vast period of time. This treatise is of such a nature and has 
such an object as my " Critique of the History of Ancient Egypt." 
St. Louis, 1888. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



(Critique of the History of the Scotts or Qaelt.) 

A Critical review of Scottic History, tracing whence and in 
what pre-Christian age the people called Scotts first 
arrived in the british isles and made conquest of erin 
and of North Britain. 

PAGES. 

First, in connection with the genealogy of the royal line 
of North Britain, continued to the present time in 
the male line of a family now existing 1-50 

This attends to each link in the royal genealogy from 
James III back to Fergus, the son of Ere, remov- 
ing, in the progress, the mystery with which 
the personalties have been beclouded by the fictions 
introduced by John de Fordun and other such 
historians. 

Secondly, in connection with the genealogies of the royal 
line of Erin from which descended that of North 
Britain 50-102 

In this space, also, each of the genealogical links, in suc- 
cession, is attended to ; and it is shown, in the 
progress, that the Scotts, Gaels, Bolgae, Tuatha de 
Danaans and Fomorians were the same people 
under these different designations, the subject being 
illustrated by genealogical lists drawn from the old 
Gaelic histories. 

Extracts from Richardson's Dissertations upon the 

Languages, etc., of the Eastern Nations 102-104 

GusHTASBorLabhradh Loingsech, theTouranians, Pelasgi, 
Bolgae, Clan Heth, Conmara, Morgann or Clan 
Aedlh, etc 104-10fe 

As to MacBeth, the king of Scottland : who he was 106-109 

(hi) 



1Y TABLE OP CONTENTS. 



I-AGES. 



As to Kobert Bruce, King of Scotland ; who he was ; and 

as to the line of ancestors of the Steward kings. 109-lli 
The genealogy tabulated, as carried upward from No. 

75 of the list, as given before, to No. 114 111-113 

History in proof of the Connection I make of the Gaelic 
Genealogical list with the line of the Shepherd 
kings of the race of Menes 113-119 

A geneaological table illustrating that connection; the 
geneaology being then extended downward to the 
present time for illustration, and in corroboration 
of what I gave before some years ago, in the Ap- 
pendix of my work " Cosmotheologies, etc.". . . . 119-120 

Extracts upon the Scythian peoples and their history 
drawn from "Bryant's Mythology" and other 
sources 121-127 

The Hyperboreans 127-128 

The Sacae and their Colonizations 128-133 

The Saxon Chronicle, etc., concerning the Scythic race 

in the British Isles 133-135 

A Brief Comparative Vocabulary of some of the most 
ancient languages, embracing the Pehlvi, Persian, 
Hindoo, Gypsy, Brahminical, Egyptian and Cau- 
casian tongues 135-155 

Farther as to the origin of the House of Steward, the 

Shaws, etc 155-171 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE SCOTTIC OR GAELIC HISTORY. 



An Extended and Critical Keview of Scottic History, trac- 
ing WHENCE AND IN WHAT PRE-CHRISTIAN AGE THE PEOPLE 

called Scots first arrived in the British Isles and made 
conquest of erin and of north britain : 

First, in connection with the genealogies of the royal 
line of North Britain, continued to the present time in 
the male line of a family now existing : 

And Secondly, in connection with the genealogies of the 
royal line of erin which was continued in that of north 
Britain. 

And Thirdly, the history continued back through the 
various windings of the scottic or scythic migrations, 
in which the line of descent is found to pass through 
some remarkable ancient monarchies, notably that of 
ancient Egypt, to its home in Asia, the progress showing 
the Scots and Goths to be sprung from the same stock. 

The history of those countries, whose form of government from time 
immemorial has been an hereditary monarchy, being taken up largeiy with 
the accounts of the successive monarchs ; and there being no certainty, 
chronologically speaking, about the dates given in those records after the 
investigator has past back in his course beyond the chronologically certain 
period ; then the thing one has first to do, who intends to go far back in an 
investigation of the history of any country is to take the genealogy of its 
line of kings step by step or (if he cannot take such genealogy, at first 
sight, arising from the fact that there may be extant somewhat differing 
versions of the same genealogy in different histories), proceed to an in- 
vestigation and by a patient study, by comparison and otherwise of the 
whole subject, arrive at the genealogy and from this determine the chron- 
ology. 

In the following critique most of our work is of the genealogical kind, 
arising from the fact that our subject is primarily of an ethnological 
character, coming within the circle of the subject of the Cosmos of Man : 
and, secondly, to show who and from what primitive race were the kings 
called Gaelic of the British Isles. 

The main genealogy, here given, is that of the regular line of Gaelic 
kings of Erin and North Britain, continued eleven steps farther down 

(1) 



2 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

than the last one of the line given that was king, so as to begin with the 
son of the first cousin of the author, who is in male line from No. 4, the 
author's father's father. From No. 4, therefore, it is the author'3 gene- 
alogy and is given in connection with the Review of the History of the 
Gaels of North Britain and Erin. 

Before each name in this continued list of 75 places I will put its num- 
ber and at the end of the list, referring to the numbers again, will give 
such explanation with historic reference and authoritative proof as I may 
consider expedient or necessary or that may serve to answer the historico- 
didactic general object my critique hath in view: 

1. William, son of 

2. James, son of 

3. John, son of 

4. Harry, son of 

5. John, son of 

6. William, son of 

7. Robert, son of 

8. Aengus, son of 

9. Benjamin, son of 

10. Robert, son of 

11. Adam, son of 

12. James, i.e., James III., son of 

13. Shaw, i.e., James II., son of 

14. Gilchrist, i.e., James I., son of 

15. John, i.e., Robert III., son of 

16. Aengus, i.e., Robert Bruce, son of 

17. Ferchadh, i.e., Ethachfhair, i.e., Alexander III, son of 

18. Ethachfhair, i.e., Cathfhair, i.e., Alexander II, son of 

19. William, i.e., Gillechallum, i.e., Malcolm rV, son of 

20. Cathanfhair, i.e., Cathfhair, i.e., Henry or Harry, son of 

21. Dunchadh, i.e., Aengus, i.e., David I, son of 

22. Ethachfhair, i.e., (Saxou) Edgar, i.e., Alexander I, son of 

23. Malcolm III mic, i.e., Morgand, i.e. 

Ceannmhor, i.e., MacDuff 

24. Dunchadh mic, i.e., "Cali." 

25. Malcolm II mic, i.e., " Hundi." 



Maelsneachtain mic. 



Lughaidh mic. 
Gilcomgain mic. 

i 



26. Malbrighdi mic, i.e., Kenneth III, i.e., Culi. 

27. Ruidhri mic, i.e., Mael, i.e., Malcolm I. 

28. Domhnald mic, i.e., Dumh, i.e., Duff. 

29. Morgand mic, i.e., Constantine, i.e., Acdh. 

30. Domhnald mic, i.e., MacConnall or Counall. 

31. Cathmhail mic, i.e., Counall, i.e., Cairig or Gregor, i.e., Eoghan, i.e., 

Kenneth II. 



GENEALOGIES. 



32. 

33. 
34. 
35. 
36. 
37. 

38. 
39. 
40. 
41. 
42. 
43. 
44. 



50. 

51. 
52. 
53. 
54. 
55. 
56. 
57. 
58. 
59. 
60. 
61. 
62. 
63. 
64. 
65. 
66. 
67. 
68. 
69. 
70. 
71. 
72. 
73, 
74. 
?5, 



Ruidhri mic, i.e., Dungal, i.e., Alpin, i.e., Muredhach. 
Aincealach mic, i.e., Sealbhach, i.e., Eochaidh, i.e., Achaius. 
Ferchard III mic, i.e., Fergus III, i.e., Eochaidh, i.e., Ewan. 
Feredliach mic, i.e., Aedh Finn, i.e., Eochaidh, i.e., Ewan. 
Fergus mic, i.e., Domhangart, i.e., Ferchard II. 
Sneachthain mic, i.e., Dorahnald (Breac), i.e., MacEthaich, i.e., 

Eochain, i.e., Kenneth I (Ciar). 
Colmau mic, i.e., Eochaidh (Buidh). 
Baedhan mic i.e., Aedhan. 
Eochaidh mic, i.e., Gabhran. 
Muredhach mic, i.e., Domhangart. 
Loarn mic, i.e., Fergus II. 
Ere mic, i.e., Eric. 
Eochaidh mic (Muinreamhair). 

45. Aengus Feart, son of 

46. Fiachaidh, son of 

47. Cruthluath, son of 

48. Eochaidh, son of 

49. Fiachaidh Cathmhail, son of 
i.e., . . . Carbri Righfhada, sou of 



Eochaidh, son of 
Conair, II., son of 
Moghallamh, son of 
Carbrie, son of i.e., 
Daire, san of i.e., . 
Conair, son of i.e., . 
Edarscol, son of i.e. 
Eoghan, son of i.e., 
Olild, son of i.e., . 
Uar, son of i.e., 



i.e., Eoghan mov 
i.e., 



Cathair, i.e 



Deaghaidh, son of i.e., Edhamhrach or Deaghaidh Teamhrach, son of 



Sen, son of i.e., 

Arondel, son of i.e., 

Maen, son of i.e., . 

Fergus, son of i.e., Forga, i.e. 

Ferchard, son of i.e.,. Feredhach, 

Olild Aron, son of i.e., . 

Fiachaidh Fearmhara, son of 

Aengus Tuirmac, son of i.e. 

Fere-Cataroet, son of i.e., 

Fyere-Roet, son of i.e., . 

Fyere-Anroet, son of i.e., 

Fere-Elmael, son of i.e., 

Ture, son of i.e.,. . 

Cathan, son of i.e., 

Eochaidh, i.e., Ughan mor, i.e., 



i.e., . Conn, son of 

MacNiadh, son of 

Lughaidh, son of 

. Daire, son of 

, . . Ferulni, son of 

. Edbolg, son of 

. Daire, son of 

Sithbolg, sou of 

Ferulni, son of 



. Deagh Derg, sou of 

Dergthini, son of 

Nuadhat Aigthech, son of 

Luchthani, son of 

.e., Lughaidh Feidhloch, son of 

Eramhan, son of 

. Edhamhain, son of 

. Eosamhain, son of 

Sin, son of 

Mathsin, son of 

Lughaidh, son of 

. ' Edhamhain, son of 

Mai, son of 

Lughaidh, sou of 

Ith. 






4 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

These columns will illustrate the numbers of generations there may be 



Carbri mc. , 
Labhradhmc, 
Bratha mc. , 
Finn mc. , 
Siorlamh mc, 
Argedmar mc, 
Foghmor mc, 
Dubh mc, 

Sithrigh mc, 

Rudhri nior mo. 

Eosa Ruadh mc, 

Fergus MaeRoigh mc 

Ciarmc, 

Mogh Taeth me., 

Astamain mc, 

Lamni mc 

Enna mc, 
Delbhnaei mc 
Fiadhmani mc, 
Eochamhain mc, 
Artri mc 
Eochaidh mc, 
Orbsenmar mc 
Mogh Art mc, 



74. Cathanmc, 

73. Ture mc, 

72. Fere-Elmael mc, 

71. Fyere-Anroet mc, 

70. Fyere-Roet mc, 

69. Fere-Cataroet mc, 

68. Aengus Tuirmac mc, 

67. Fiachaidh Fermhara mc, 



Lughaidh mc 

Mai mc. 

Edhamhan mc. 

Lughaidh mc. 

Mathsin mc. 

Sin mc. 

Eosamhan mc 

Edhamhan mc. 



66. OWd Eramhan mc. 
65. Feredhach mc, 
64. Forga mc, 
,, 63. Maen mc, 

62. Arondel me. 

61. Sen mc 



Eramhan mc, Labhradh Lore mc 

Lughaidh Feidhlach mc, Beadhacta mc. 

Luchthanimc. B.athacta mc. 

Nuadhat A rgthech me., Eosamhan Emham mc. 

WM ^U ta .-c. Roi^eonRuadh mc. 

DeaghDeargmc, 



60. 



&£EU. K-amracr^a^ambrachmc. ^aochmc. 

ronidtc, S.fhCmt-MurerrLchnamc, EochAreanhm 

« Fo^han mc Daire mc, Mogh Feb.s mc, 

M E-fdarscol mc, Edbolg mc, Loch mor mc, 

» Cona'r I mc, Ferulni mc, Enna Muncaem mc. 
MDaremc Daire mc, Deargth.m mc, 

S: CaX mc, U^-^-J, rghSmc. 

i meet M err Wh^.. m . 



Trifin Evna mc. 

Lughaidh mc. 

Crimthan mc. 

Feredhach mc. 

Fiachaidh mc. 

Ogaman mc. 

Imchadh mc. 



SabhalorSaulmc, 50. Carbri Riadamc, 
Mesinconmc, 49. Fiach Cathmail mc, 
48. Eochaidh mc, 
47. Cruthluathmc, 
46. Fiachaidh mc, 
45. Aengus Feart mc, 
44. Eochaidh Mumreamhar 



Amhlaibh mc, 
Mochduin mc. 
Ebhric mc, 
Imchadh mc. 
Ferbramc, 



Rectach mc. 
Senasg mc. , 
Durthactmc, 
Aedh Logha mc 
Maeltuilimc, 
Recta Brathmc, 

Cobhthach mc, 
Colmanmc, 
FlannFearnamc. 
Maelsechlain mc. , 34. 

Finn mc , 33, 

Conchobhar mc, 32. 



43. 
42. 

41. 

40. 

39. 

, 38. 

37. 

36. 

35 



Eire mc. , 
Fergus mor mc, 
Muiredhach mc, 
Eochaidh mc, 
Baedhan mc, 
Colman mc, 
Sneachtain mc, 
Fearghus mc, 
, Feredhach mc. , 
. Fearchard III. mc, 
Ain Ceallach mc, 
Muiredhach mc, 



Findchadh mc. 
Fergus Dubhdhedach mc. 
Cormac Ulfada mc. 
Carbri Liffecar mc. 
Fiachaidh mc, 
Mueredhach Tirech mc. 
mc, Eochaidh Mugh Med- 
[hon mc. 
Niall Naoi Ghiall. mc. 
Eoghan mc 
Muiredhach mc. 
Muirchertach MacErca mc. 
Domnald mc 
Aedh Uaridhnech mc. 
Maelsithrigh me. 
Maelduin mc. 
Fergal mc 
Nial Frasach mc. 
Aedh Oirnigh mc. 
Nial Calni mc, 







GENEALOGIES. 


U 


Diarraaid mc, 


31. 


Cathmhail mc, 


Aedh Finliath mc. 


Culuachra mc. 


30. 


Domnald mc, 


Nial Glun-dubh mc 


Ruidhri mc. 


29. 


Morgand mc, 


Murchertach mc 


Tadhg mc, 


28. 


Domnald mc, 


Domnald, died in 980, mac. 


Aedh mc, 
Cathal mc. , 
Conehobhar mc. 


27. 
26. 
25. 


Ruidhri mc 
Maelbrighdi mc. 
Malcolm II. mc. 


Column of 
Irish Kings. 


Muiredhach mc 


24. 


Dunchadh mc. 





MacBethaigh, slain ioi4, mc, 23. Malcolm III., slain 1097, mac 

The numbered list is the claim of the ancestors. The three parallel 
lists are for illustration by way of comparison of the number of genera- 
tions there may be in different parallel lines of descent for a likeperiod of 
time. 

The following is the royal Line of Leinster, so called, in descent from 
Labhradh Longsech and Ughan mor. 



Domnall Caemhanach, abt. 

1200 A. D., mac 
Diarraaid, na-n-Gall mc. 
Donchadh mc. 
Murchadh mc 
Diarraaid mc 
Donchadh mc 
Diarraaid mc 
Domnall mc 
Kellaeh mc. 
Kinaeth mc. 
Carbri mc. 
Aedh mc. 
Ruaghalach mc. 
Oncu mc. 
Faelcu mc. 
Faelan mc 
Si Ian mc. 

Eoghan Caech mc. 
Natlii mc. 
Crimthan mc. 
Enna Kennselach mc. 
Bresal Belaoh mc. 
Fiachaidh Bacheda mc. 
Cathair Mor mc. 
Feidhlraidh Firurglas mc. 
Cormac Gelta-gaeth mc. 
27 Niadh-Corb mc. 



28 Cu-Corb mc 
Mogh Corb mc. 
Conehobhar Abra Ruadh mc. 
Finn the Poet mc. 
Rosa Ruadh mc 
Fergus Fargi mc. 
Nuadhat Nect mc. 
Sedna Sithbac mc 
Lughaidh Lothflnn mc. 
Bresal Brec mc. 
Fiachaidh Fobrec mc. 
Olild Glas mc. 
Fiachaidh Foglas mc. 
Nuadhat Follamhain mc. 
Alloid mc. 
Art mc. 
Mogh Art mc. 
Crimthan mc. 
Feidhlimidh Fortruin mc. 
Fergus Fortamhail mc. 
Bresal Breoghamhain mc. 
Aengus Follamhain mc. 
Olild Braechaen mc 
Labhradh Longsech mc. 
Olild Ani mc. 
Laegari Lore mc. 
Iugani Mor. 



b CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

Under No. 23 is the man called Ceanmor, which the Sagas translate 
Langhals, meaning literally, I believe, " long neck," but the Scots trans- 
David I, No. 21, whose Gaelic name was Dunchadh, has been in some old histories called 
Aengus.* Their Aengus they also make to have been *' a son of a daughter of Lughaidh," 
which last was the Gaelic name of the immediate predecessor of Malcolm III, as king of Scot- 
land. But it comes out in the course of the narrative that his father was Alexander I, and his 
mother a daughter of William of Normandy. The Scottish monk historians have, in this con- 
nection, Aengus, Malcolm, his son, and so on, whom they represent as contestants for the 
Scottish crown ; hut this is, in a sense, fictitious, the object being to obscure the narrative as to 
origins. The histories represent Alexander III as having come to his death by a fall from his 
horse; but it is more probable that his death was the result of violence. A son of his 
survived him, and he is in genealogical lists named Aengus, but as King Robert II. Now, a com- 
parison of the names in the lists of Mackintosh from this Aengus back to Dunchadh and of 
those with other family lirts for part of that period and with what the monks, following 
Fordun, have said about it in their histories, shows it to be not improbable that the monks 
have made this last Aengus to have been son of Alexander I, instead of Alexander III, whose 
son he was. And in this way I notice that some few names in the list after this Aengus may 
have been applied to some of those before him or vice versa, as follows: 



" Hist, of Mackintosh and Clan Chathan." 

13. Shaw, son 

14. Gilchrist, son 

15. Eoghan, sou 

16. Aengus 



Skene's " Celtic Scotland." Appendix, 
19. Gilchrist, i. e., William in Hist, of Mack- 
intosh and Clan Chathan. 
18. Shaw, i. e., Alexander II, son 
17. Ferchard, i. e.. Alexander III, son 
16. Gillemichael, whose name Skene says 

was Aengus. son 

What makes it more than probable that it is Aengus, No. 16, that is made to be Aengus, No. 21, 
is that in the mystified histories this Aengus comes out in connection with David I under the 
name of Gillemichael MacDuff, while the name of our No. 16 is entered both as Gillemichael 
and as Aengus MacDuff. He is the dark horse or first " Steward," so called. These two lists of 
four names each are, as you see by the numbers, in the succession of father to son, the only 
name common to the two being No. 16. The furm of name of No. 17, i.e., Ferchard or Ferchadh, 
which equals Ethaehfhair or Sethach, may have given rise to the two family names Shaw and 
Farquarson, as connected with that country. The idea of descent from monarchy in those 
narrow countries is apt to be thought of invidiously, and the various ideas connected with 
the knowledge of such descent, subjectively and objectively, doubtless led the monks to mystify 
the history as they did, their motives in doing so being perhaps, a good one. 

David I, No. 21, being the same with Dunchadh, was son of Alexander I, and grandson of 
Malcolm III, not the son of the latter as some histories have it. He was also, in his name of 
Duncan MacDuff, " great-grandson " of the man who was slain by MacBeth, not of the man 
who slew MacBeth, as Burke has it in his heraldry. 

The first part of the family history of Mackintosh has been carefully handled in order to 
obscure the true origin. Before Aengus, No. 16, their history reckons five chiefs of Mackin- 
tosh; but, I find, all these were kings of Scotland excepting No. 20, if he were not. According 
to Burton, Skene, and others, Alexander II died in 1249, and his son, then 8 years old, was, in 
Burton's language, crowned by the title of Alexander III. Skene has this to have taken place 
on July 13th, five days after his father's funeral. But a boy only 8 years of age has yet long to 
remain in tutelage. After speaking of the valor displayed by young Ferchard at the battle of 
Largs fought against the northmen in 1263, and how that he, in the next year, 1264, accompanied 
Comyn, earl of Athol, in his expedition against the northern and western isles; which (isles) 
were in 1265 ceded to the Scottish kingdom by the successor of Haco, the author of the history 
of Mackintosh states: "In this last-named year (1265), whenonly about 25 years old, Ferchard 
succeeded to the chiefship." That is, he was born in the early part of 1241, was 8 years old in 
the beginning of 1249, at his father's death, and was in his 25th year when in reality he 
succeeded to the chiefship, as according to this. The Mackintosh history represents him as 
having lost his life by the hand of violence, and that of the MacDonalds calls his son, Aengus, 
" the first laird of Mackintosh," although, perhaps only father to that first chief; but this 
indicates that the five ancestors preceding him were not known as chiefs of Mackintosh. 
While the name of MacDuff appears to have arisen from the circumstances of the children of 
Dunchadh, No. 24, after the death of their father, that of Mackintosh as plainly arose from 
the name Aengus, No. 16; for MacAnlhaesaigh (which is the proper way of spelling the family 
name MacAntoiseach) is for MacAenghaesaigh, the t being commuted with the g. This name 
Acnghaes is also turned into Taesean, generally spelled Toisean, an equivolent for Toiseach. 
The form Dunchadh equals Eoch-IHiuin or Eochain. According to Lhuyd and the old 
Lexicographers It equals Toiseach, prop. Taeseach ; it thus plainly equals Aenghus. 



XOKTH UKITAIN. ( 

late " great head." It is not impossible that it may stand for Crannmor, 
meaning " great tree " or "mainmast of a ship," as, away back in the 
history, I see t'ae clan of which he descends is called Clan Craebh. 

In the Gaelic annals generally this next, 24, is entered as Dunchadhi 
which, however, may have been originally spelled Duchadh, whose geni- 
tive is Dubhthach ; for I see instances in Scottish history in which the 
name appearing in English as Duncan is in the original Duchadh; as in 
the case of Duchadh, abbot of Dunkeld, in connection with the kings 
Dubh and Cuillen in the Pictish chronicle, wherein the name they have 
transferred to English as Duncan is Duchadh. If the case we have under 
consideration were alike why then Ceanmor was the literal MacDuff of 
Shakespeare. 

Now, although Shakespeare's MacDuff may have been put down in the 
general mind as a myth, as well as the Fife MacDuff of the old authors, 
still we find from Tiernach and Marianne, contemporary authors, the for- 
mer having died in 1088 and the latter having been born in 1028, from the 
Annals of Ulster as well as the general Scottic and Anglic authorities that 
Malcolm III. or Malcolm mac Dunchadh killed MacBethaigh,* which would 
seem to indicate said Malcolm to have been the real MacDuff. Although 
I have not yet got myself to understand that there must needs have been 
an act of killing in the case, I yet find this Malcolm's name to stand eighth 
in the list from Alpin, which is the place Sir Geo. Mackenzie, whether 
correctly or not, has given MacDuff in the line of the descent. 

The Saxon Scottish historians have rendered the history of that country 
very obscure by their having clothed some of their celebrated historic 
characters not only with such appellations as those here mentioned, hut 
with some derived from the names of saints. The early compilers of their 
history were mostly clergymen of some grade, officials in their monasteries 
and institutions of learning, and the object of some of them evidently was 



* A. D 1057 MacBethaidh mic Findlaich Alrdri Alban domarbad do Maelcolaim mic Don- 
chadha. MacBeth the eon of Finlay, chief king of Scotland, was slain by Malcolm, the son 
of Duncan." Tiernach's Annals: to which the Annals of Ulster add " i cath" tin battle). 

A. D. 1057. Marians Scotus has: *' Macfinlaeg occiditur in Augusto," that is, MacFinlay 
fell in August. And again : " Inde Macfinlaeg rengavit annis 17 ad eandem raissam Sanctae 
Mariae " (15th August). Tiernach and Marianus were, as I have said, contemporary authors, 
Tiernach having finished his Annals before 1088. The popular mind, I believe, generally has it 
that MacDuff slew MacBeth ; here we find out who MacDuff was ; and the unvaried tradition 
of the house of Mackintosh and the Shaws of that ilk has been that they were descended from 
MacDuff who slew MacBeth, the grandfather of that one, whom I have set down as Aengus 
the 21st in my list. 

A. D. 1058. Lulach Ri Albain domarbad Col MacDunchadha per dolunk: i.e., "Lnghaidh, 
the chief king of Scotland, was slain by Malcolm, son of Duncan, through treachery." Tier- 
nach's Scottic Annals, under 1058 A. D. 

That this is the proper date is shown by what follows: After entering the death of Mao- 
kiethaidh, son of Fmlaigh, in 1057 Marianus Scotus says: " Lulag successit et occiditur in 
Martio:" i. e. " Lughaidh succeeded and fell in March;" and again, " Lulach, a nativetate 
Sanctae Mariae ad missam Sancti Patricii in mense Martio regnavit" (17th March). He then 
bad reigned king of Scotland just seven months and two days, that Is, from the date of the 
death of MacBeth, being the 15th of August preceding. 



8 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

to weave a mythico-historie web, which it would be found difficult in after 
times for the unscholarly people to disentangle or get the meaning of. 
Such historic style would appear to have had for its object, first, some idea 
the author had in his mind as pertaining to governmental class as dis- 
tinguished from the people ; and secondly, doubtless, that it might tend in 
time to unite the people of Scotland, north and south, into one whole, in 
which the national idea would eventually prevail over all sectional issues 
or clannal distinctions, by which a way might eventually be opened to a 
unification of North and South Britain. 

However, this Duncan, 24, is in the Orkneyinga Saga called Karl or 
Kali Hundason ; no where there is he called Duncan ; and this is accounted 
strange, since that the Norwegians of Orkney and of the north of Scot- 
land were for some years occupied in waging war against him. The form 
Karl or Kal in the Norwegian would mean, in its commonest acceptation, 
a stout, robust man, and thus Kail or Kali Hundason would mean "the 
stout son of Hundi," his father being usually in the same Sagas called 
Hundi. Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary shows that Carl signifies a 
" male," being " chiefly used before words to signify the male as cwen is 
the female," which shows it would before Hundi mean at least what I 
have stated. 

But, on the other hand, if Karl or Kali were meant by them to represent 
a root name in this case, by which Duncan was known, it would reasonably 
appear that Kali, rather than Karl, would justly represent that root, for 
the Sagas usually affixed an r to oui words, but they could not easily affix 
it to Kal for Kalr would not sound very well. A person would be apt to 
conclude that if the root had been Carl they would have expressed it 
usually as Karl, but their expressing it as Kali would tend to show that, 
if the forms they used had reference to the root name, that root was Cal, 
Col or the like. 

In the old Gaelic cull or gull means a'house, a church, a round tower, 
in all of which it agrees with Dumb ; it also means a champion, a hero, 
and in its form Cull and Coll is the appellation of Hercules in that lan- 
guage ; it means, moreover, kin, kindred, relations, people, clan, from 
which arises the idea of ' house,' or 'patria;' it means the back which 
has reference to the roof of the house, and a hindrance, for meaning kin, it 
is kind and this is hind referring to that which ' hinders' i.e. ' pulls back.' 
But the truth is that call, etc., equals in full Cal-daemh or Cal-bhaedh 
and either part of the compound is understood as meaning the whole. 
We can see, therefore, how Clan Dhuibh and Clan Chuill or Mac Dhuiff 
and Mac Chuill mean the same, as appears by the clan designations in 
the history.* 



* Says Vallancy*in speaking of the ancient Irish alphabet: " The Irish have another Ogham 
called Ogham Coll, that is, the Ogham of Mercury, of the circles of Tait. Coll, i.e. Tait, i.e. 
Irish illustris Mercurius." " The Ogham Coll is not an alphabet properly speaking, but cir- 



NORTH BRITAIN. .' 

In the modern Gaelic Dictionary I find Macabh or Macaibh or Ma* 
caimh (all pronounced MacCauv or McCu, much as MacDhubh, when 
the d being aspirated and silent, the c in effect takes its place), put down 
as meaning (1) a liberal, generous, accomplished man; (2) a fair youth, 
a young hero; (3) plural heroes, renowned persons. Referring, there- 
fore, to our number (24) it is easily understood from the foregoing he 
might have been called either Cal or Dumb, or, if you please, the whole 



cular scales for the ordering of the terminating vowels in verse. From Feadh or Fiodh, a tree, 
proceeds Foedh, Fodh, knowledge, art, science, which in the Sanscrit or Brahminic language 
ia written Ved, and from Hercules being the inventor of the Fiadh or Fiodh, he was called 
Fidius." " The symbol of literature with the Irish is a tree or a serpent, or both ; the tree has 
been converted into a club; Cull, the Irish name of Hercules-Mercurius, signifies acluband 
also a tree. Hence we find on all the most ancient medals of Hercules a club, a tree, a serpent 
or a lyre ; for he was Ogham, that is, the harmonious circle, the Hercules Ogmius of the Gauls ; 
he was the Rustam of the Persians, because Rus in Irish signifies a tree and knowledge or 
science. To prune the tree or the vine signifies to compose a hymn; to wreathe the pruned 
branches into Ogham or circles had the same signification. Hence in Irish Damh, a poet, a 
learned man, Damha, a poem, from the Chaldaic dama, succidere, excidere, (to prune). The 
Jews altered the first letter of this word into Z and wrote it Zamar, which signifies to 
prune and to sing psalms or compose hymns." " The origin of this symbol is to be found in 
Irish documents only. The olive tree aud the vine was the emblem of literature in general 
To prune the tree, to weave the small branches into Ogham, crowns or circles, signified to 
compose in verse, and hence, each letter of the Irish alphabet was denominated from a par- 
ticular kind of tree and so were those of the Samaritan or Hebrew and Chaldee." " The two 
different Oghams are distinguished, as the Ogham Craebh, the Ogham of the branch, and the 
Ogham Cuill or the Ogham of Tait, that is, Mercury. Sometimes Hercules is represented 
as covered with laurel or ivy and by him an altar dedicated to Oghai." " The general, 
name of the Ogham when written on the right liue was Feadh or Fiodh, that is 
trees, because the tree was the emblem of literature among the Scythians. Hence Her- 
cules received the name of Fidius; hence rus a tree and rus knowledge; whence Rus- 
tarn, the trunk, club, tree of knowledge, was another name of Hercules." "But Creath 
or Criath in Irish signifies science, knowledge and a sieve; and Creat is another name 
for the Scythian and Irish Hercules." It is evident that Creath is but another form for 
Craebh, a branch, a bough, a tree. " Gollamh is a common name in Irish for a strong man." 
Then we have " Damh, learning; Dumhaidh, a man of learning, a professor, from Damh 
and JE Ih, meaning a teacher; Dairah, blood, connection, consanguinity, clan, people, house; 
Greek Demos, people, root Dem; Pesic Dem, Society; Ir. Daimhiath, a powerful clan; Daimh, 
a church; Damhliach, the stone church, from Daimh a church and lach a stone, pronounced 
Duleek and said to have been the first stone church, which the Christians erected in Ireland. 
According to Ammianus the ancient name of Adrianople in Thrace was Uscu-Dania, that is, in 
Irish, Uisge-Daimh, meaning the residence, town, village or city near the water, — Damh, 
equus, bos, or a learned man ; Dunn, a learned man, a doctor or professor, — " Deimh, death, 
dark or hidden is now, say the lexicographers, written Taimh, as Taimh-tin, a natural death; 
Taimh-leacht, a burial earn; Tainih-lach, a t<unb-stone. Deimh al is, therefore, the Angel of 
Death, Daemh, but with the M unaspirated, as found in the Latin Domus, and even in the 
Gaelic Dom, a house is the original for Dome and you can 6ee that Taemh is Tomb, that Is, the 
house or dome of the dead. Daemh as well as Gall, Call, etc., means a round tower. In its 
primitive idea it has reference to rotundity, the belt of the zodiac; circle of the Bun ; the con- 
cave dome of the celestial sphere, the convex dome of the hemisphere of the earth; and as 
applied to objects; such as the human cranium, a human dwelling, etc., it has in it the idea 
both of the concave and the convex, the internal and external idea of the dome. When 
the Greeks (says Valiancy, Coll, IV., XIV., note), came to understand that cuil.in the Scythian 
language meant a club, and err, a hero, they thought HerculeB derived from Errcuil, or the 
club-hero, and thus they represented him ; and the symbol of Hercules being the trunk of an 
olive tree confirmed them in the mistake." He considers the name Hercules derived from 
Arg-iul, re., Arg, a ship, and iul, guidance, an index. But the first meaning, given for Arg is 
champion, chief, commander, which are also among the meanings of iul. Again, he adds, 
" Earc means the heavens and Earciul describes the instrument turning to a certain point of 



10 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

compound Caldhaemh, contracted into Coll; for the foregoing explanation 
also bears that in those ages and especially among the Scotch, whose 
tendency it was to abbreviate their words, it is most likely that the form 
Dunchadh or Dunach, would be occasionally pronounced as Dufach or 
Duff, and sometimes get into the histories under those forms by which he 
might become permanently known. 

Under our number {'25) we have Malcolm. As I have said above he is 
called in the Sagas Hundi. A person would naturally suppose that this 



the heavens." But in the sense of these instruments the word Earciul does not refer to a man, 
but to an inanimate thing. 

My explanation of it is that Err, as appearing above, has one r too many. The word is evi- 
dently for Fear, a man; and, before we shall have finished our genealogic treatise, we shall find 
our hero in the form Ferulni, i.e., Fear-Culin, a little Hercules. 

Call, Coll, Cull, and GuLh the voice. Mac Chaill, etc., " Son of the voice," an Echo. It has 
reference largely to the oracle-givers or the prophets who predicted future events or de- 
livered oracles, and consequently Mac Chuil would he, anciently, a priest, a prophet or the like. 

Both, Bath, genitive Boithe, etc., a cottage, hut, house ; Bothall, Bothlanu, a temple, house. 
Valiancy, in speaking of the word Tirtiguacan, a word meamng pyramid in Mexican, says: 
"This Mexican word is literally Irish, Tir-teag-uaghan, the sepulchre of the house of 
the spirit." Again, in speaking of his labors as set forth in the seven volumes of his 
11 Collectanea dc Rebus Hibernicis," from which very able work I have extracted much of the 
information set forth in this foot note, he says: " I flatter myself to have thrown new light upon 
this subject and to have proved that the old language of those islands was originally Pales- 
tine-Scythic; it was in fact the language of that people which Mons. Baily calls J'ancien peu- 
ple perdue. And if I may be allowed the expression, I esteem the Irish, Erse and Maux, to be 
those very ancient people, and therefore, they may properly be called 1'aucien peuple perdu 
retrouve." 

Another very able and pertinent writer, the author of the " Round Towers," explains Fiadh 
to be the plural of Budh, with the B aspirated, changed to F, and remarks that Syncellus 
spells Budh iu the singular number with an F; and Josephus changes the d into t, as in Fut or 
Put, the Apollo of the Chaldees, and the founder of the Libyan nations of Africa." Hence, the 
collective and complex idea arises to us from the simple ; from the idea of a tree, for example, 
we rise to the idea of a wood, a forest, fiadh, feahh, coill ; and even to a heap of (fire) wood as 
conadh, I have not noticed that our clan has in any age been called Clan Fife; but from what 
has gone before it might have been so designated literally ; for if we put Feabh into the genitive 
after clan it will become Clan Fhibhe, which might be pronounced Clan Hive, perhaps, and a 
hive, you see, is a " bee -house." From Prof. Humphrey Lhuyd as follows: — 
Irish Fifach, Sciens, Knowing, ) Root Fibh of nom- 
Irish Fifaim, I know J inative Feabh, 

a wood, a forest, a tree. In this manner Coill, Daemh and Feabh are exchangeable; and 
Baedh easily suggests Budh, and this Daebh or Dubh, all meaning a house. Under the bead, 
of Domus, a house, Prof. Lhuyd, has for the Irish among other terms: Teach, Domhnach, 
Cai (which is an abbreviation of Caill or Coill); Dae (which is an abbreviation of Daibh 
or Daimh) ; Domh, Dom (that is they have the same word with the m aspirated and 
unaspirated, meaning a house). Lann, Long, Conghall, Dunadh, Achadh, Dunach, or 
Dunachadh, etc., and Conadh, that is Cinaedh, a wooden house or a heap of wood. I 
find not only in the Irish, but in the ancient oriental languages that the forms Cal, Col, Cul, 
have both the idea of shade, that which is above as Coelura, the celestial vault, the ceiling of 
a room, etc., and also the idea of a house generally, and of a church, and by prefixing s you 
have scull and skill. The scull is the dome of the human body, the daebh-or daemh, highest 
roof; and in fact in German Rufen, root, ruf, means " to call." Then there is the Irish cail.cul, 
etc., Arabic koel, a covenant compact; and Damn, a covenant, compact, law; the support of a 
family ; chief of a clan ; a column, pillar, prop ; the pillar of a State, prime minister of a nation. 
(See farther Valiancy.) A general idea in the root Gall or Cull is that of rotundity; the 
zodiac or course of the sun; the sun, the sphere. The Irish round towers were called Gaill 
(plural of Gall), the idea, doubtless, being largely connected with the beautiful, conical dome, 
which finished them above. These towers were, as we are informed by Bishop Cormac Mao* 
Culiuan, in the Psaltar of Cashel, the temples of the ancient religion of the country. 



NORTH BRITAIN. 11 

form, Hundi, would arise to the Norwegians from the Gaelic name-form 
Conn ; but this is not necessarily so ; for although such form might arise 
from Cu, genitive Conn, it is none the less true that it might - arise from 
Coll, which itself is for Colmh or Calmh, one of whose genitive forms i9 
Chuilbh (from which form, doubtless, arises not only our word whelp but 
wolf). Both forms were known and used by the writers of the Sagas. 
Mr. Skene (Celt. Scot. I. 386), in speaking from Olaf Trygveson's Saga 
of that newly-converted Christian monarch, in his relation to Sigurd, Earl 
of Orkney, says: "King Olaf offered the Earl to ransom his life on con- 
dition he should embrace the true faith and be baptized; that he should 
become his man and proclaim Christianity over all the Orkneys. He took 
his son Hundi or Huelp, as a hostage, and left the Orkneys for Norway, 
where Hundi stayed with him some years and then died there." 

This man warred against the Norwegians in the north of Scotland about 
in 987-8 A. D. (see Skene in time of Kenneth III.) ; and it is thought by 
some to have been the same Hundi, who, under the name of ' Cronan, 
abbot of Dunkeld, fell in a battle, fought among the Scots themselves in 
1045 ' A. D. But a little consideration will show that this was not at all 
likely to have been the case ; for between the times of these battles there 
had intervened at least fifty-seven years ; and when Hundi first appears 
under that name, in 987-8, he is in command of an army and cannot rea- 
sonably be supposed to have been less than 25 or 30 years of age ; so that 
supposing him to have been the same man who was killed in war in 1045, 
his eighty-second year, at the least, perhaps his ninetieth, found him. lead- 
ing on his men on the battlefield, in which ; he got killed with nine score 
heroes.' In the Ulster Annals (in O'Connor'sColl. de R. H. ) I find the 
following entry under 1045 ; "A battle between the Albanenses themselves 
in which was slain Cronan Abbas Duncaillend." Tiernach, who gives of 
his name, the form 'Crinan,' has the number slain to be 'nine score 
heroes.' 

It is true that King Duncan is called in the old authorities, the ' son of 
Crinan,' but in the Sagas, invariably, the ' son of Hundi;' and I, for my 
part, knowing tnw the old Scottic histories have been doctored for a pur- 
pose, as mentioned above, all of them I say which had a historical bearing 
being evidently thus treated — even Tiernach' s Annals having been sup- 
pressed from 766 to 975 — would not for a moment hesitate to prefer in 
this case the last mentioned authority. The fact is that were it not for 
the Sagas it would have been exceedingly difficult for Mr. Burton, Mr. 
Skene and some others to have broken the seal of the mystery which those 
old church authorities have stamped upon the historic records of Scotland, 
even to the limited extent, which in the face of national and class preju- 
dices, these investigators have felt free to do this 

There, probably, was in the age referred to, a man named Cronan or 
Crinan, who was abbot of Dunkeld, and, although Duncan's father was, 



12 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

doubtless, known in his day by the name of Malcolm, yet in the fourteenth 
century, or three centuries after his death, he might have been entered by 
Fordun in his history as Crinan, this form, in the process of doctoring, 
being considered a literal equivalent for the other ; for either Mael or Coll 
or both compounded into one word, namely Malcolm, would be to Cronan 
or Crinan, in point of literal meaning, as our word skull stands toward 
cranium. 

It is true that the name Malcolm, meaning especially in that early age, 
' servant of Saint Colum,' might have been assumed by a man over his 
baptismal name Cronan. The form Cronan, pronounced Cronawn, is evi- 
dently a compound word, having, as one of its components, the word dubh 
in its diminutive form, daemhan ; consequently Cran-dhaemhan would 
equal in sound Crawnawn or Cronyawn. The word Crinan, Creenvawn, 
also implies the idea of rotundity, the globe, the world, the. precise equiva- 
lent of one of its compounds, D.imhan, the world. This idea of world is 
implied in the idea of Cranium (Greek Cranion) our S-Cull. 

Said a gentleman to me, who is a professor of the Irish language, 
" Cronan is the name we give to a swarthy or dark complexioned man," 
having the same meaning as Ciaran (which he pronounced Keearawn), de- 
rived from Ciar, black or dark brown, corresponding to dubh, black or 
water-color. It has also, said he, the idea of rotundity, Crninne which is 
Crinan, meaning the orb of the world, corresponding to domhan, or Budh, 
'the world,' Beatha, ' life.' 

In Speaking of the epithet Crandhamhna, as applied to one Conall a 
king of Dalriada, Dr. O'Connor says: " Or, as in some Codices, Cean- 
ghamhna." This would be pronounced Cawnyawn or Cawnawn, and the 
Cean or Cran in Cronan or Crinan equals ' Claim ' or ' Mac' * 

In an enumeration of certain clans of Scotland, in regard to their de- 
scent, standing in the books of Farborough MacFirbis (Scot. Forbes), a 
celebrated antiquary who wrote about 15G0, and was of the family of 
MacFirbises who compiled the Book of Lecan, from the twelfth to the fif- 
teenth century, there appears under its appropriate head the following 
entry: "MacGillaEoin (MacLean), the two MacLeods (or the MacClouds, 



* Crann means a tree rather in the sense of a beam, mast, shaft, that which shoots up or 
forth as a beam of light ; and it must also mean a plant or young tree ; for Welsh plant is issue, 
offspring, children, and the 1 and r being consonants of the same organ are much interchanged 
In the languages. The c and p are also much interchanged. "The Celtic Clan," says Webster, 
"ie probably the Welsh plan, plant, with a different prefix." Clann is Clant or Cland; plann is 
plant or pland, and so Crann is Crant or Crand. That Clan is an equivalent for Ma. is shown by 
the fact that clan is plan and the Welsh for Mac is Mali or Map, and everyboay knows that a 
plan of anything is, in a sense, a map of it. Clan, plan, plant: "the radical sense is probably to 
shoot, to extend." — Webster. From the fact that 0'Flaherty,in the Gaelic, spe. Is this name 
Crionan I would rather think that, in connection with this clan of Kuidhri or Clan Duff, which 
is understood generally as meaning a house, a shieling or the like, Malcolm or any other man 
of this family, might have have been called, by the historian, Crianan for Grianan, the G being 
often represented by C, simply as a literal equivalent for the clan name Duibn or Craebh In the 
sense of Duibh; for the form Grianan has among its meanings a summer house, a palace, a 
peak of a mountain ; or a sunny place, etc. 



NORTH BRITAIN. 13 

of the Islands of Harris and Lewis) ; MacConnigh (MacKenzie) Mac a 
Toisigh (Mackintosh) ; Murmor Hundon (Mormaer of Moray?) are of the 
race of Conaire." 

This entry I take from Skene's Celt, Scotland (vol. iii., p. 119), and 
that author, who is an eminent Gaelic scholar and historian, knows, nothing 
to the contrary of the " Murmair Hundon " or Hundi, referring here to the 
Mormaer of Moray. In connection, therefore, with our ' Kali Hundason ' 
this entry may be taken fairly to show that said Kali was a descendant of 
the House of Moray. 

The name which the Irish authorities generally wrote Ciueath, was by 
the Scots usually written Coineach and Cuineach or Cunacluidh, and also 
Conan or Conang, which last forms would be equivalent to Cronan. 
Speaking of Kenneth Kear, king of Dalriada, O'Flaherty says: " He is 
indiscriminately called Conchadh, Connadh and Conang, but not Cinaeth." 
Notwithstanding this, however, the Scots have translated the name Ken- 
neth, because with them it was the same. If, then, our Hundi had for 
his baptismal name any of those forms which from Conair or Cronan, 
might, perhaps, as well as Coll be translated Hundi, then he must have 
assumed the name Malcolm, for the reason above given, which I consider 
not improbable. The house of the Mormaers of Moray was of the same 
stock as that of the MacAlpin line of kings, that is it was of the house of 
Ferchar III., whence the line proceeded. This will become clearer as we 
go on. As to the father of our Kali, that is, Hundi, while having been 
king of Scotland for twenty-nine years, it is not improbable from what may 
be discovered to the contrary that he may have held the office, whether 
honorary or otherwise, for a terra or for his lifetime, of lay abbot of Dun- 
keld. This, however, is secondary to the idea of Hundi, being the father 
of Kali, and we have before us a remarkable instance of the obscuration of 
the Scottish history by the clerical scribes alluded to above. 

Says Mr. W. F. Skene: " What may be called the Celtic period of Scot- 
tish history has been peculiarly the field of a fabulous narrative of no ordi- 
nary perplexity ; but while the origin of those fables can be very distinctly 
traced to the rivalry and ambition of ecclesiastical establishments and 
church parties and to the great national controversy excited by the claim 
of England to a feudal supremacy over Scotland, still each period of its 
history will be found not to be without sources of information. Before 
the earl}' history of any country can be correctly ascertained there is a 
preliminary process which must be gone through and which is quite essen- 
tial to a sound treatment of the subject; and that is a critical examination 
of the authorities upon which that history is based. This is especially 
necessary with regard to the early history of Scotland." 

After giving a succinct review of the works on Scottish history, preceding 
his own, this author says: "These works are all more or less tainted by 
the same defect that they have not been. founded upon that complete and 



1 1 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

comprehensive examination of all the existing materials for the history of 
this early period, and that critical examination of their relative values and 
analysis of their contents without which any view of this period of the 
annals of the country must be partial and inexact. They labor, in short, 
under the twofold defect, first, of an uncritical use of the materials, 
which are authentic ; and, second, of the combination with those materials 
of others which are undoubtedly spurious. The early chronicles are re- 
ferred to as of equal authority and without reference to the period or cir- 
cumstances of their production. The text of Fordun's chronicle, upon 
which the history, at least prior to the fourteenth century, must always to 
a considerable extent be based, is quoted as an original authority, without 
adverting to the materials he made use of and the mode in which he has 
adapted them to a fictitious scheme of history ; and the additions and al- 
terations of his interpolater, Bowar, are not only founded upon as the 
statements of Fordun himself, but quoted under his name in preference 
to his original version of the events.* 

It is well for me to remark here, in crder that there may be the proper 
discernment in regard to this subject, that neither Mr. Skene nor anj' other 
writer intends to say that the work of Fordun and his continuator, Bowar, 
or that of Hector Boece, is entirely fictitious ; but what they intend to say 
is that the true history of Scotland ia its earlj r periods has been by those 
writers so interwoven with fiction that it requires much labor and time 
and painstaking research on the part of the competent and unprejudiced 
critic to disentangle the facts and exhibit the continuous thread of the 
historic events free from mythic covering or class or race coloring A 
man who would say, for example, that the work of Fordun is entirely 
fictitious would be prepared to say that the Albanic, Pictish and Scottish 
nations did not begin to exist before comparatively modern times, an 
assertion, which, if made, even intelligent common sense would at once 
negative, and the intelligence of the learned would say was idiotic. 

Prof. Munch in his 'Chronicle of Mann' (pp. 46-48) calls the im- 
mediate successor of Malcolm II. 'Malcolm MacKenneth.' But in this 
he was following a misconception of Mr. Skene as published in his 
'Highlanders of Scotland,' in 1837, in which he had suggested 'that 
two kings of Scotland, at this period, of the name of Malcolm had been 
confounded, one who died in 1029 and Malcolm MacKenneth, who died in 
1034, and that the latter was Kali Hundason.' In his edition of Celtic 
Scot, published in 1880 (vol. I, p. 400, note), Mr. Skene notices the 
mistake of Prof. Munch and regrets that he should have led the Prof. 
into it ; for that he had ' long since come to the conclusion that this theory 
is untenable.' 



* Celtic Scotland, Introduction to vol. 1, by Wm. F. Skene, in 3 vols. Mr. Skene has the rep- 
utation of being one of the most perfect Gaelic-English scholars of his day. He most now 
be well advanced in years, his work on the Highland Clans having been published in 1837. His 
publisher is David Douglas, Edinburg, Scotland. 



XORTH BRITAIN. 



15 



Prof. Munch, speaking from the Orkneyinga Saga with reference to 
Thorfinn, son of Sigurd, says: " Thorfinn outliving his oldest brothers 
became lord of Orkney and Shetland, and Caithness was given to him by 
his maternal grandfather, Malcolm MacMaelbrigid, and, after the death 
of Malcolm in 1029, he sustained a successful war with King Malcolm 
MacKenneth and conquered Sutherland and Ross," etc. 

In speaking of the theory of two Malcolms at this period Mr. Burton 
says: " It is necessary to speak of them as one since there are no means 
of separating their two reputations." Hist. Scot. 1, 374. 

Now, as to our number (25) we shall leave this for the present, expect- 
ing more light on it as we proceed. But referring to number (2G) we 
have Kenneth III. all wrapped up in his mantle of Saint Brighit. But 
this Kenneth was a renowned warrior, and in the Sagas he is called Mag- 
Biodr, which Mr. Skene and others think is meant as a substitute for 
MaelBrighdi, in which they may be correct; but for which there might 
be other reasons as follows : MagBiodr, the Scandinavians would 
substitute for MacBoidh, which name they would give him, as 
a surname, from his father, whose name was Ruidhri, our num- 
ber (27). The name Ruidhri is a compound word, made up of Rugh and 
Airidh. Now, if auy one looks into the Gaelic Lexicon he will find 
Rugh to mean an arm, a cape, promontory, etc., and among its meanings _ 
also is a shieling, that is, a booth, hut, or summer residence for herds- 
men. Of Airidh the first signification is shieling. MacRuidhri, therefore, 
would be literally translatable MacBoidhe or MacBaidhe, which the Scan- 
dinavians, calling the man by his surname instead of his Christian name, 
would set down as MagBiodr or MagBoidr. * 

This Ruighri (27), whom they have set down in the history as Malcolm 
I, is in the Pictish chronicle simply called Mael, which may have given 
rise to the appellation of Malcolm I., as applied to him. ' Speaking of Con- 
stantine, the son of Aedh, his immediate predecessor' retiring to a mon- 



* A reference in Skene's (Celt. Scot. I, 57) has led me to suppose, if not decide, that our 
Keneth III. was named among his own people Cal or Col, genetive Cuil or Culi. From the 
records of grants, made from time to time to the Monastery of Deer in Buchan, there is the fol- 
lowing expression: " Then Domnall, son of Ruidhri, the fifth-named mormaer (that is before 
mentioned), and Malcolm, son of Culi, give Bid hen, now Biffie; and here the king comes in as also 
possessing rights in these lands, for Malcolm, son of Cinaetha, or Malcolm II., gives the king's 
share in Bidhen, Pett mic Gobroig and the two Davachs of Upper Rosabard." I have thought 
it very clear that the Malcolm sonof Culi and the Malcolm son of Cinaetha represented but one 
person, with a sort of glossing over to render obscure the king's identity; for, in the first place, 
I do not find that among the Scotch themajelves the form Cinaeth was used much, if any, for 
our name Kenneth, their form being Calneach or Coinneach ; and in the second place, their 
forms Call, etc., meaning Caldhaemh, Colbhacdh or Culaedh, the fii;st part of the compound 
having the meaning of kin or clan, it is very likely that this form was put by their historians 
into the form Cinaeth as a just literal equivalent. But this ' Culi * is called in the same record 
the ' son of Batni;' as it comes to me, however, in English the Gaelic is not fairly represented 
in the expression. Baedhan, genitive Baidhni, is, of course, a diminutive of Baidh or Boidh, 
and Culi would be the genitive of Cal or Col, and so the expression ' Malcolm, son of Culi, son 
of Batni,' as given in English, would, in short, thus equal 'Malcolm mac-MaelBrighdi mic 
Ruidhri,' 



16 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

astery in his old age, the chronicle, as Anglicised from the Latin, says: 
"And being decrepit with old age he took the pilgrim's staff and served 
the Lord, and resigned the kingdom to Mael, the son of Donald." Mael 
is evidently put here for Ruighri, meaning just the same as its first com- 
ponent.* 

This Rudhri's father being named Donald (28) helps also to identify 
him as the 'Mael' or 'Malcolm I, Son of Donald,' of the history of 
Fordun. In one of the old English chronicles, in an enumeration of the 
kings who were present with King Edgar on one occasion (sometime in the 
interval 950-975) I see his name entered as ' Rinoch, the King of Scottes,' 
which, however, may have referred to his son Maelbrighdi. The root of 
this form of his name would be simply a diminutive of Rudha, a point of 
land or promontory, as explained above, and would mean, in effect, the 
same.t 

This root evidently carries in it the idea of Toiseach, he who precedes, 
goes before, leads ; and the use of the form ness (a promontorj') exchange- 
ably with tusor tos (see local names Moythus, Moythes and Moyness, as in 
Celt., Scott., III., 248 ; those different forms referring to the same place), 
which (ness) I take to be an abbreviation of Aengus, which in its turn 
must equal Taesean, fuller form Taeseanach, show that all these words 
are, as it were, clustered together in the idea representing the same 
thing or action, the same collective idea or course of action. Speaking in 
relation to the grades and relation of offices to each other among the Gaels 
in 2arly times, Mr. Skene (Celt. Scot. III., 141) speaks as follows of the 
King: "As the supreme authority and judge of the tribe he was the Ri or 
King. This was his primary function. Then we are told that ' it is lawful 
for a king to have a judge, though he himself is a judge.' As the leader 
in war he was the ' Toisech ' or captain, and bore the one or the other title 
as either function became most prominent, while in some cases these func- 
tions might be separated and held by different functionaries." Thus, I 
think,, it has generally been with the Gaels in the ages preceding the intro- 
duction of foreign manners, customs, and modifications of government, or 
before the age of the children of Malcolm Ceanmor ; and the MacAlpine 
line of kings, I perceive, were not averse to the title of Toiseach. 

And now for some more light upon what has preceded : In Tiernach's 
Annals, under the year 1029, there is the following entry: " Malcolaim 
mac MaelBrighdi mic Ruidhri, Ri Albain, mortuus est." "Malcolm, the 
son of MaelBrighdi, the grandson of Ruidhri, King of Scotland, died." 
Chronicle of the Picts and Scots, p. 77. 



*" Rudha, a point of land jutting out into the sea, a promontory ; Mael or Maol, a cape Or 
promontory, the brow of a rock." — Gaelic Eng. Dictionary. 

f " Koinn, a point, ns of a^weapon , a small promontory or headland." — Gaelic Dictionary. 
I is the diminutive form of the root that is used in the Greek for our word ' nose,' as 'PiSi 
genitive, 'Pi^os, root 'Piv, this organ being a kind of 'point' or ' promontory * projecting from 
the face- 



NORTH BRITAIN. 17 

Under the year 1034 there appears in the same authority and on the same 
page the following: " Malcolaim mac Cinaetha, Ri Alpan ordan iarthair 
Eorpa uile deg." " Malcolm, the son of Cinaeth, king of the Alban 
nobility (or dignity) of all western Europe died." This is rather bomb- 
astic language and seems to me to have no meaning; but if it has, then, 
one Malcolm, the king of Scotland, died in 1029, and another, the king of 
all the nobility or dignity of western Europe died in 1034. Or would 
this last entry have had reference to some man who had been the recognized 
chief of some secret and wide-spread organization after the manner of the 
' Masons ? ' Otherwise it is so evidently a foolish entry or a forgery that I 
do not think worth while to say any more about it, 

In the course of their mystification and, in effect, falsification of the 
Scottish historic records the fabulists who would apparently make the Mac 
Alpine line of kings to have been distinct and of different origin from the 
house of Moray have stated that their Malcolm II., son to Kenneth III., 
son to Malcolm I., had no son but two daughters, one of whom was mar- 
ried to Sigurd, Earl of Orkney and the other to Crinan, abbot of Dunkeld. 
They, perhaps, did not foresee that it would be discovered in due time in 
the Sagas, that the Malcolm, whose daughter Sigurd had married, wa3 
Malcolm mac MaelBrighdi mic Ruidhri, .vho reigned over Scotland as its 
king for 29 years. This last statement taken from the Sagas, as to the 
length of time Sigurd's father-in-law reigned, proves beyond all doubt 
Malcolm mac MaelBrighdi to be identic with Malcolm mac Cinaedha ; 
for, according to the best authorities upon this subject, Mr. Skene among 
the rest, king Grim, otherwise called MacDhuff, the immediate predecessor 
of Malcolm II., and the immediate successor of Oonstantine, the son of 
Cuillen, died in 1004 or 1005 (the Annals of Ulster having it in the latter 
year), to which if you add 29 years you have 1034, which according to all 
is the proper year of the death of Malcolm II. Any one, therefore, can 
see what invaluable helps those Sagas are to us in the work of disentang- 
ling the intricate web of this history, which no one who has not tried his 
patience with, can fully appreciate the difficulty of. Mr. Burton in his 
History of Scotland (vol. 1, 310), speaking in reference to the history of 
the earlier periods and the difficulty of coming to a proper understanding 
of it says: " The whole affair is so fugitive and confused as to afford 
nothing but perplexity to those who have tried to unravel it." 

The Sagas know nothing about MacBeth under that name anymore than 
they do about Duncan under this appellation ; but impartial consideration 
of the subject shows that MacBeth, whether or not he was known by 
another appellation also, was an entity and was king of Scotland for about 
seventeen years. 

But to illustrate how those old records have been made to confuse mat- 
ters, take for an example the following from the chronicle of the Hunting- 
ton under anno 1054 : — 

2— d 



18 CEITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

Comes Northumbriae Siwardus Scotiam ingressus Maket regem nepo- 
tem dic'i Malcolmi cum XV annis regnaret, a regno fugavit, which is 
translated as follows: " Seward, Earl of Northumberland, having entered 
Scotland, chased from that realm King Maketh, the grandson of said Mal- 
colm, when he had reigned fifteen years." Without thinking it necessary 
here to show that almost all the ancient authorities agree as to Mac- 
Beth having reigned seventeen years, or up to 1057 instead of 1054, as, 
according to this author, I will simply bring to your notice how that Mac- 
Beth is here called ' the grandson of said Malcolm.' 

But it might be difficult here to determine which MacBeth was referred 
to, there appearing to have been a MacBeth or MacBoidhe, grandson to 
Malcolm 1st, and a MacBeth, grandson to Malcolm II. This tabulation 
will illustrate the case : — 

Euidhri was Malcolm I. 

Maelbrighdi was Kenneth III, son of 

i ' 1 

MacBoidhe son of Malcolm II, son of 

, -A , 

Dunchadh son of Bethach, daughter of 

Thorfin son of 

The common opinion, as gathered from the genealogical lists appearing 
in the histories of those periods, was that King MacBeth was cousin- 
germain of Malcolm II, as having been grandson of Ruidhri through his 
son Finlaoch. But this is an eggregious mistake as I will make plain 
before having finished this Appendix work. 

Under anno 1033, the year in which, according to Mr. Burton, Mal- 
colm II. died, the Annals of Ulster have the following entry: — 

' Mac meic Boidhe mac Cinaedha do marbhadh la Malcolaim meic 
Cinaedha:' which, as it stands, is thus translated: ''A son of a son of 
Boidhe, son of Cinaedh, was slain by Malcolm, sou of Cinaedh." Mr. 
Skene says with respect of the Cinaedh here mentioned: " He may either 
have been the same Kenneth who was father of Malcolm II." (i.e., Mael- 
brighdi), " thus making Bodhe his" (i.e., Malcolm's) "brother, or the 
Kenneth, son of Malcolm, who slew Constantine, son of Culen, and is sup- 
posed by Ford un to have been his" (i.e., Kenneth III. or Maelbrighdis) 
" illegitimate brother." 

The present reading, however, of the Annals would make the person who 
was killed by Kenneth (it makes no difference as to time, as you see, 
which Kenneth it was, the two Kenneths being supposed brothers by 
Fordun, just as if there were not enough names accessible to Ruidhri, 
i.e., Malcolm I., to obviate the necessity of his giving the same name to 
two of his sons ; but the Kenneth here referred to in the Annals appears 
clearly enough Kenneth III.); I sa}' the present reading of the Annals 
would make the person who was killed by Malcolm II. to have been great 
grandson of Kenneth by his son Bodhe, and consequently two generations 



NORTH BRITAIN. 19 

farther down in the scale than Malcolm EL", the supposed brother to that 
Bodhe. If, therefore, such a person lived in the time of Malcolm II., and 
the latter killed him, he must necessarily have killed a young and harmless 
child. But such an idea is inadmissable. 

The true reading for meicBoidke in the passage in the Annals is beyond 
doubt MacBoidhe, which would make the passage thus translated : "A son 
of MacBoidhe, son of Kenneth, was slain by Malcolm, son of Kenneth." 
This would make the person whom Malcolm is supposed to have killed to 
have been his nephew and Kenneth's grandson. I have not noticed that 
there was such a name as Baedh or Bodhe common among the Gaels, but 
Mac Baidhe or MacBoidhe, etc., was not uncommon, and signified, I 
believe, a champion, a hero, an accomplished gentleman.* 



* In both Tiernach and Marian us MacBeth is entered as son of Finlaoch ; but whether or not 
Finlaoch was a name by which a brother of Maelbnghdi was known, as according to some old 
genealogical tabulations, it is pretty certain that the MacBeth, who reigned King of Scotland 
for 17 years, was of the house of Malcolm mac Maelbnghdi, but through a female line. 
As king, therefore, he was illegitimate. *' St. Berchan," says Skene, "gives MacBeth 
a reign of 30 years, which reckoning from his death in 1057 places its commencement 
about this time," i.e., 1029 or when Malcolm II. deceased. Consequently this MacBeth 
must have been considered by a portion at least of the Scottish nation .as King during 
the reign of Duncan. A person would think that a man so regarded at the time 
could not be supposed to have risen to the place from outside the house of Mael- 
bnghdi, unless he were a conqueror of the country. Under anno 1029 the Chronicle 
of the Picts and Scots, p. 77, has the entry: " Malcolm mac MaelBrighdi mic Ruidhri, ri Alban, 
inortuus est." That is, Malcolm, the Second died in that year. " The later chronicles," says 
Skene, "state that he was slain by treachery atGlammis; and Fordun adds, by some of the 
stock of Constantine and Grym, — but the older notices of his death imply that he died a nat- 
ural death." If Malcolm had killed his brother's son whether or not he had good reason from 
his point of view for such proceeding, he doubtless made enemies for himself; for the brother 
whose son had lost his life, who doubtless had a strong party in the nation in sympathy with 
him, would have taken the matter to heart; and perhaps none the least of those, who would 
meditate vengeance for the deed would be the maternal relations of the boy. This would be 
likely to be so whether or not anything would come of it. 

Under anno 1020 the Annals of Ulster have the following entry: Finlaech mac Ruidhri, rl Al 
bain, a suis occisus. That is " Finley, son of Ruidhri, king of Scotland, was slain by his own 
people." In Tiernach's Annals, wherein the entry is under the same year, Finley is called not 
ri or king but " Procurator or Seneschal 1 of the clan of Craebh." 

While it may be taken for granted that Clan Craebh is meant for Clan Duibh, the then Clan 
Ruidhri, still I think there is good reason to conclude these entries not authentic: For, in the 
first place, this Finlaech is entered in the Sagas as engaged in war in about 980-1 with Sigurd, 
earl of Orkney ; and we cannot suppose him to have been less than thirty years of age, when lie 
entrusted himself or was entrusted by his people with the command of an army against the 
Norwegians, so that at the time he was killed, as according to the last entry, ' by his brothers 
sons, a not very likely thing indeed, even at that time, he would have been 70 years of age, 
perhaps 80; so that the entries, on the whole, look to me as having a counterfeit face. In all 
the Annals of that Country and period there is mu«b that is not authentic, and much that is 
fictitious. 

The reason why Tiernach's proper Annals are so comparatively meagre is thought to have 
beeu because of the author's greatdesire to have published only truth. 1 have thought it strange 
that his Anna's should have been suppressed from 766 to 975 A. D. and although Dr. O'Connor 
supposes that the matter suppressed in his Annals appears, in the main, in the Annals of Ulster 
yet most investigators would prefer to have the statements under the name of Tiernach himself. 
Under the year 995 there appears in Tiernach the following entry: " Kenneth, the son of 
Malcolm, king of Scotland, was slain by his own people." He is said by de Wyntoun to have 
been killed at Fetherkerne, which I believe is located in the district called the Mcarns, by the 
wife of the maormor of that province, whose only son it is said Kenneth had caused to be put 
to death sometime previously. Whether or not there be any truth in this it would seem to 
contain the story of Malcolm, the seconds death by anticipation. If one of them died a violent 
death the story may have beeu transferred to the other gratuitously? 



20 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

It appeared to me, whether I was correct in my notion or not, that it 
may have been Fordun '9 inventive genius which created a Kenneth, son 
of Malcolm, to slay a Constantine son of Culen ; and secondly it has ap- 
peared to me plain enough — the whole story of Crinan, abthane of Dull 
to the contrary notwithstanding — that Kenneth III. had a sufficient num- 
ber of sons to occupy his throne after him independently of any stranger 
who might have happened into his kinship through a female line. 

Mr. Skene continues: " Fordun tells us that the old custom of the suc- 
cession of kings lasted without a break until the time of Malcolm II. , son of 
Kenneth, when for fear of the dismemberment of the kingdom which 
might perhaps result therefrom that king, in a general ordinance, decreed 
as a law forever, that henceforth each king after his death should be suc- 
ceeded in the government of the kingdom, by whoever was at the time 
being the next descendant, that is a son or a daughter, a nephew or a 
niece, the nearest then living. Failing these, however, the next heir 
begotten of a royal or a collateral stock should possess the right of inheri- 
tance." Fordun's Chron. B. IV. Ch. 1, Ed. 1872. 

"Whether," continues Skene, "Malcolm actually issued a formal 
decree to this effect rests on the authority of Fordun alone, which can 
hardly be accepted for the events of this early period. Malcolm seems to 
have taken the readier mode of removing from life any competitor who 
could claim as a male descendant." Thus Skene. (Celt. Scot. vol. I., 
399 note). 

Would this whole thing have been pure and simple one of the continued 
fabrications of Fordun to which Mr. Skene himself sometimes gives a too 
literal interpretation ; for it is a most unreasonable supposition that 
Malcolm would have gone to work and deliberately taken the life of any 
one simply to prevent such an one from succeeding in the government. If 



I have reflected, on consideration of this whole subject, that there is not only great llkehood 
but abundant proof of the Gaelic records of this period, say from the tenth to the fifteenth cen- 
tury, having been corrupted for a purpose, that is, in connection with the mythico-historio 
productions of Fordun and the Irish historians and that consequently what is found in those 
records of those and preceding periods should be as far as possible compared with the Scan- 
dinavian or other external records, before they are set down as authentic. 

Secondly, I have noticed that since the marriage of the son of Duncan with the English 
princess Margaret, the South British literature appears to have been all on one side. The son 
and grandson of Duncan, that is Malcolm III. and his son Edgar, if not his brother David also, 
came into the power in Scotland by means of the assisting forces from South Britain ; conse- 
quently, since that time, there has been no little glorification of that one side on the part of the 
South British and Anglo-Scotch authors and no little contempt, if not abuse, of the other side- 
It is a sorry thing indeed to find a Scotch historian try to keep on the popular side at the ex- 
pense, perhaps, of some principal. In true patriotism there it much true principle. This, indeed, 
is not narrow or contracted, but looking above small things and not allowing itself to brood over 
or be occupied with the faults or foibles of a few of its people, which faults are likely to be 
laid hold of and magnified by designing foreigners, perhaps for their own glorification, it em- 
braces in its love the whole nation and kindred of its patria. Dr. Geo. Chalmers in his repre- 
sentation of the character of MacBeth might be thoueht to have developed a truly patriotic 
spirit if he had not developed it on the wrong side. He seems to have been conscious of 
MacBeth'a illegitimacy as King, but if he thought him to have been by desceut a Scot, he was 
mistaken. 



NORTH BRITAIN. 21 

he diil take the life of any one it is most probable that he had good and 
reasonable grounds, at least from his standpoint, for such proceeding. 
O'Flaherty, Ogygia, I. 2G2, says of this Malcolm: " He made the crown 
hereditary which had been before a concession of the nobility ; he enacted 
laws ; divided the kingdom into baronies. John Skeuae collected the 
statutes of Malcolm II. , and published them ; where in the first chapter, 
King Malcolm gave and distributed all the country of the Kingdom of 
Scotland to his subjects and reserved nothing for himself, as a property 
except his royalty and Mount Placid, in the village of Scone." He i3 said 
to have been the first who applied to the kingdom, the name Scotland ; for 
in his reign he had won by war the territory south of the Firth of Forth, 
namely Lothian, so that he united the whole country as far as the English 
borders under the name of Scotland ; I know not, indeed, whether O'Flah- 
erty had in his possession a copy of the law collected, as he says, by 
Skenae ; but it would seem that he was acquainted with it by his referring 
to its first chapter. Mr. Skene, however, says above that the said law 
' rests upon the authority of Fordun alone,' and as to whether this was so 
or not I deem of no consequence. 

When Fordun wrote, Scotland was under foreign, more especially 
Anglo-Normanic influence. He certainly appears not to have had all his 
interest in humanity or for himself centered in the Scottish nation. He 
appears to have been of foreign derivation to Scotland, for Mr. Skene, 
after referring to his description of the Highlanders as contained in vol. 
II., p. 38 of his Chronicle, says: " This description is, no doubt, to some 
extent colored by the predilections of one who himself belonged to the 
Low country population, but is not greatly unlike the prejudiced view 
taken of the characteristics of the Celtic population by late historians ; 
and the struggle between the prejudices of the old historian against the 
Highland population, and his reluctant admission of their better qualities 
is apparent enough." 

With a peculiar ingenuity under his ecclesiastical cloak his general ob- 
ject, as appears to me, must have been : first, a sort of unification of 
Scotland itself under a strong government, somewhat akin to the Normanic 
of that age ; more nationality, less clanship would doubtless be for the end 
Fordun had in view, as best what was required. He, therefore, must, in 
his idea produce a history, so-called, in which the facts would be so 
•interwoven and embellished with fiction that it would be difficult for the 
clans in future time to trace their origin, at least from his chronicle ; and 
If they should undertake to do so they must, for the good of the general 
mass, become a laughing stock to the so-called learned class, who being 
largely of foreign derivation to the country would be in a position to attri- 
bute to them plausibly any foreign origin they pleased, without the people 
themselves being intelligent enough to exercise any judgment on the 
matter. He would thus, so to speak, render them inouldable, like clay in 



22 CRITIQUE OF SCOT1HC HISTORY. 

the hands of the potter, as to their susceptibility to foreign influences and 
their receptivity of foreign institutions, national and local. Secondly, his 
object from the fraternal standpoint of a priest would doubtless have been 
the promotion of international friendship, intelligence and commerce, 
more especially among the people of the British Isles, and eventually the 
unification of North and South Britain. Whether this may be a somewhat 
fair view, in a limited way, of his general object, the man himself, his age 
and circumstance being considered, and whether all this has been accom- 
plished to a remarkable degree at a much too great sacrifice to it, at the 
start, of simple truth only those who are acquainted with this general sub- 
ject can judge; but it is evident that even Mr. Skene may have followed 
him too closely and understood him too literally in many places and con- 
nections in which his narrative may be fictitious. 

It is agreed by all historians that with Malcolm II. the light breaks in 
upon the Scottish history. But this Malcolm II. the Sagas have enabled 
us to identify with Malcolm, son of MaelBrighdi ; consequently Mael- 
Brighdi is their Cinaeth III. Now this Cinaeth III. was, of course, son of 
their Malcolm I. ; but we really find by the genealogic list that Mael- 
Brighdi was the son of Ruidhri ; consequently, as shown before, Ruidhri 
is their Malcolm I. But this, their Malcolm I. was, according to them, 
the son of Donald, which we find in the genealogic list to be the name of 
the father of Rudhri. He was doubtless in his lifetime usually called by 
the short name of Dumb. He is number 28 of our genealogic list, and is 
called by Dr. Chalmers and the other historians Donald IV. He must be 
the Donald Dagathach of the Ulster Annals and O' Flaherty and this being 
so we have in our No. (29) that is Morgand or Morcund not only Con- 
stantine but Aedh ; for, according to all the authorities, the man we find 
to be Donald IV. was son to Constantine, which name in the Gaelic is 
Conn or Cund, the clan name thereof being Aedh. Morcand is merchant, 
that is, the Conn or chief of the sea (Mur). This Constantine they enter 
as son to Kenneth II. ; but here the immediate .predecessor of Morgand is 
entered as Donald, who, being also given as his father, leaves Constantine 
to have been grandson of Kenneth II., not his son. For it is certain the 
one in our list they intend for Kenneth II. isCathmail No. 31 ; Gregair in 
the adjoining list, and in another list, Eoglian. This being so the one 
who immediately precedes Cathmail in our list, i.e., Ruidhri; and, in the 



* Dr. Jas. Brown, in his History of Scotland, speaks of Kenneth McAlpin as of a mythical 
character, " celebrated in fabulous story for his supposed extermination of the whole Pictish 
nation ;•* and calls MacDuff, Earl of Fife, " a greater and more renowned hero than Kenneth 
McAlpin himself and not less apocryphal." In a like Tein he speaks of Gregor, the Great, 
whom the clan of MacGregor claim as their ancestor. But notwithstanding all this those men 
were entities; doubtless, real, industrious, hard-working men in their day and generation. 
But the histories have clothed some few of them with different forms of name than those given 
to them in baptism — such as Fife MacDuff, with perhaps another name or two for the same 
man — w r hile in most cases, doubtless the histories have entered them by their proper Christian 
names. 



NORTH BRITAIN. 23 

adjoining list, Dungal, is the man they intend for Alpin, for these three 
names, meaning the same thing, refer to the same person, whom some 
have also entered as Muiredhach. 

Of the word Donald the parts are Daemh-land (nald being equivalent 
to land as Allin is in the Gaelic after mac or clan, MacNallie, etc. , or 
as with us, our common name Ellen is Nellie ; or in the Gaelic again, 
Seachlann is the same with Seachnaill, Dunseachlainn being Dunseach- 
naill, etc.), and in this name Donald we suppose the parts each to mean 
just about the same as the other. Now, although the form Connall, of 
which Cinnell is a variation, as for example, in the phrase Cineal Scuit, 
the Scottish race, Cinel Comhghall, the tribe or clan of Comgall, is but an 
inflection of Domhnall, that is a form which arises from the genitive after 
mac, clan, etc., MacDhomhnaill, being turned into MacConnaill as Mac- 
Connich arises from MacDhunach ; and although this Connaill or Cinel 
or Cineal has the precise meaning of the form Cinaedh still and withal it 
may not be quite clear to those, who are unacquainted with the Gaelic 
language, its idioms, ami the history of the nation whose language it was, 
that DomhnaldMacChathmhail was sometimes AnglicisedConnalMacConnal. 
Take the meanings of the parts then: Daimh, a house, a church, clan, 
people ; Laun, an inclosure, church, house, land, either of them might 
in several of their senses be used for the other ; but if a perfectly literal 
definition would be required of the compound word Donald, it would be 
the ' Dome of the Enclosure,' the roof of the house ; as applied to a 
human being it would mean the ' head man of a State;' but the general 
meaning usually understood of it is ' clan,' ' house,' in which it agrees 
exactly with the form Cinaeth ; which latter form, as I have remarked be- 
fore, appears not to have been in very general use among the Scotch.* 

The place where Alpin was killed in battle with the Picts of Galloway is 
called Drum Cathmail. " One of the Chronicles," says Skene, " appears 
to have preserved the traditionary account of his death, when it tells us 
that he was slain in Galloway, after he had destroyed it, by a single person 
who lay in wait for him in a thick wood, overhanging the entrance of the 
ford of a river as he rode among his people." In reference to the local- 
ity of the battle, the writer of the ' Statistical Account ' says that ' its 
surface abounds with small hills of a conical figure called Drums ;' and ' on 
the northeast is the green hill of Dungaile, whose summit was once 
crowned with a strong fort.' 'Dungayle,' says he, 'is probably a 
corruption from Dun — G. — Chathmhail, the aspirated consonants being 
quiescent.' N. S. A. vol. IV. pp. 144-5. "There is a large upright 



* The simplest explanation of it is that Cinueal, which the Scotch people generally use for 
Cinneadh (it meaning exactly the same), is understood as a variation of Connall, which latter 
is or arises from an inflection of Domhnall, that is, after mac or clan, or the like in the genitive 
case. 



21 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

pillar stone," says Mr. Skene, " to which the name Laight Alpin or the 
grave of Alpin is given ; it belongs to the farm of Meikle and Little 
Laight on the eastern shore of Loch Ryan, and the stone is on the very 
line of separation between the counties of Ayr and Wigtoun." 

In the early church in Wales there was a St. Cathrnail (also called St. 
Cadoc and Docus) and Mr. Skene finds there was a place called Kirk Cor- 
mac in the parish of Kelton in Galloway, near Kirk Cudbright, about 
where the battle was fought, which place or church he supposes was in 
early times called Cathrnail. 

Either Ruidhri or Dungal was, doubtless, the baptismal name of this 
man, but he was afterwards given for variation in the histories other 
names, of the same meaning at least in some of their senses. 

As to the date of Alpin's death we are told in the chronicle of Hunting- 
ton that " in the year 834 there was a conflict between the Scots and Picts 
at Easter and many of the more noble of the Picts were slain ami Alpin, 
king of the Scots, remained victorious, but, being elated with his success, 
he was in another battle, fought on the 20th of July in the same year, 
defeated and slain." This appears to be a variation of the other ac- 
count. 

Mr. Skene finds that in the old British language of Strathelyde Ruidhri 
means Dominus, which is the meaning given for the name Muiredhach by 
Valiancy and the old lexicographers. This name Muiredhach was used, 
doubtless, by some historians for further variation and mystification of the 
history at this period. This man is identical with " Muiredhach the good," 
the "son of Ferchar " in the Alban Duan. 

In No. 33 of my list is the name Aincealach, spelled also in one old list 
I have seen, Aireealach, which is, doubtless, a mistranscription of a letter 
by some MSS. copyist. In the old Gaelic genealogies some whose proper 
name was Eochaidh appear in the histories under other names, as, for ex- 
ample, Carbri Righfhada and his grandfather Moghallamh, who had as 
their proper prenomen r^ochaidh or Eoghan. This man, therefore, under 
whose two adjectival names of Aincealach (gentle, goo 1 ) and Sealbhach 
(wealth}-) the}' have made out so much of the historical romance, would 
seem to have had for his baptismal name Eochaidh; for Alpiu is called 
" Son of Achaius." The strain of the history is that Sealbhach was a 
brother of Aincealach, who contested in war with him his right to the 
throne and so prevailed against him as to cause him to absent himself in Ire- 
land for two years. That after the expiration of this time Aincealach re- 
turned, defeated Sealbhach in battle and resumed the administration of the 
government. But, if there were noother marks internal or external to indicate 
their character as partly fictitious, the contradictions and inconsistencies 
with which the histories of that age and country abound would clearly show 
to the historical critic that a large portion of the filling up or expansion of 
those histories must necessarily be of the nature of the historical romance. 



NORTH BRITAIN. 25 

No. 34 is quite a remarkable figure in Dalriadic history. To this Fer- 
chard or to iiis father through a brother of his, all the private genealogies 
in the MacAlpin line, which have come under my observation, trace back. 
He is made eighth in descent from Loarn, who is set down in the Irish list as 
son of Ere and is represented in some histories as brother of Fergus. The 
genealogy of this Ferchard is given not only in the ' Tract on the Men of 
Alban ' in the chronicle of the Picts and Scots (p. 316), but in the Books 
of Bulb/mote, Lecan and Leinster. Supposing, therefore, for the present, 
the said Loarn to have been as the statements in the Irish histories and 
the traditions represent, namely, as a son of Eric and elder broth'jr of 
Fergus, then this Ferchard was the first of his line, after his eighth ances- 
tor, who came to the throne of Dalriada. O' Flaherty puts him down as 
" 16th king of Dalriada, and eighth from Loarn," so that of the race of 
Fergus, the latter included, there were fifteen kings before this Ferchard. 
Since, however, the old Scottish historians, Fordun and those who have 
followed him, have not mentioned Loarn or alluded to the clan called, 
afterwards, Cinnel Loarn, some people have thought Loarn to have been 
only another name for Fergus. Supposing it, first, to be as the Irish his- 
tories represent then Ferchard' s accession to the throne arose from the 
following chain of circumstances. From the death of Donald Brec, king 
of Dalriada, in war with the Britons of Strathclyde, in 642, A. D., it is 
noticed that no one is called by Tiernach Ri of Dalriada (although he 
mentions two or three who succeeded each other), before the son of this 
Ferchard. " Dalriada," says Skene, " seems to have fallen into a state 
of anarchy on the death of Donald Brec. During the remainder of this 
century we find no descendant of Aidan recorded, bearing the title of king 
of Dalriada, and it is probable from Adamnan's remark " (circa, 700 A. 
D.), referring to Donald Brec, " that from that day to this they have been 
trodden down by strangers," that the Britons now exercised a rule over 
them. (Celt. Scot. 1,250) From this it is seen that the Britons did, for 
a time, during the period indicated, dominate over the Dalriadians, which 
both they anil the Angles did to some extent over the Picts, whom they 
wished to bring more under subjection to them; for Bede tells us that in the 
year 685 " Ecgfried, king of Nortkumbia, led an army to ravage the prov- 
inces of the Picts, and that the enemy feigning a retreat, he was led into 
the passes of inaccessible mountains and slain witli the greatest part of the 
forces which he had taken with him, on the 20th day of May, in the 40th 
year of his age," i.e., in the year 685. In this expedition Ecgfried seems 
to have wrought much destruction to the Pictish cities, and, says Skene, 
" he seems at the same time to have sent a detachment from his army into 
Dalriada where he burnt Dunollaig, now Dunolly, the chief stronghold of 
the Cinel Loarn." 

The effect of this crushing defeat of the Anglic army, together with 
their King's death, was to enable those who had been in a somewhat sub- 



2b 



CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 



ject state to recover their complete independence: Bede sums it up: 
" From that time the hopes and strength of the Anglic kingdom began 
to fluctuate and to retrograde, for the Picts recovered the territory be- 
longing to them which the Angles had held and the Scots who were in 
Britain and a certain part of the Britons regained their liberty, which they 
have now enjoyed for about 46 years." (Bk. IV., ch. 26.) Bede died 
about anno 734. 

" Although," says Skene, the ' Scots of Dariada had thus obtained entire 
independence they did not immediately become united under one head. 
Their freedom from the yoke of the Britons and Angles was followed by 
a contest betweeen the chiefs of their two principal tribes, the Cinel Loarn 
and the Cinel Gabhran, for the throne of Dalriada. On the death of Donald 
Brec, when the Britons obtained a kind of supremacy over the Dalriads, 
his brother Conall Crandamhna and his sons Maldun and Donald Duirn 
appear to have been at the head of the Cinel Gabhran ; but Fearchar 
Fada, the chief of the principal branch of the Cinel Loarn, had, as we 
have seen, taken the lead in the attempt to free Dalriada from the rule of 
strangers. (Celt. Scot. 1, 271.) 

In the year 690, according to Tiernach and all the best authorities, 
died Malduin, son to Donald Duirn, to whom succeeded Ferchard Fada, 
who reigned 21 years, dying, according to O'FIaherty, in 711. Mr. 
Pinkerton in his critique, w-ritten in 1728, remarks that all the old lists 
have Malduin to immediately precede Ferchard Fada. In the year 687-8, 
according to Skene, Adamnan, Abbot of Iona, sent twelve ships to Loarn 
for oaks and had the monastery repaired, which since the time of its found- 
ation by Columba Cille, had fallen [into disrepair. Hector Boethius in- 
forms us that this monastery was rebuilt by Malduin, King of Dalriada, 
who died in 690. Referring to this matter Skene says in regard to Mal- 
duin: "He, therefore, reigned at the very time when Adamnan was 
abbot, and this fixes the date of these repairs as between C87 and 690." 
(Celt. Scot. II. 171). From all this it is seen that the date given by 
Flaherty for the death of Ferchard Fada must be the correct one.* 

If those who understand literally the story of the two contesting 
brothers think they have ground to conclude the real Cinneth MacAlpin 
descended through Sealbhach instead of through Aincealach, it is plain 
that the one (Cinneth) to whom only they can have reference is " Gregair 
the great," the son of Dungal, who is put down in the old historically 
romantic chronicles as having reigned over Scotland for eighteen years 
(87^-896); for, in the first place, Dungal in the list is made son of 
!■ ealbhach ; and this Dungal they represent as occupying the throne fo 
six years in the early part of that century ; and if this Grigair (Gairig, i.e. 



* Some of the old authorities confound the entry of tho death of Ferchard, the son of Conath 
Cear, which took place about 603-697, as appears from the entries, with that of Ferchard Fada. 
They were, however, two different men, the dates of whose deaths were different. 



NORTH BRITAIN. 27 

Cathair) son of Dungal were the son of this Dungal who was son of 
Sealbhach, and there is nothing to indicate that he was not, then he would 
have been the great grandson of Fearchard who died in 711 and might be 
supposed, even on historical grounds, to have lived in the time set down 
for him. The following I extract from that tissue of fabrication, Hollins- 
head's Chronicle, V., 217-18. Speaking of the arrest and imprisonment of 
Aedh, son of Cinnaeth, in A. D. 878, he says: "This done they pro- 
ceeded to the election of a new king; andjin the end by the persuasion of 
one Dongal, governor or thane of Argyle, they chose Gregory, the son of 
that Dongal, who reigned before Alpin, who was not past two months old 
when his father died." Supposing Gregair to have been son of that 
Dongal, who was grandson of Ferchard Fada, you will see where his 
name appears in the list, and under this name he is ancestor to the clan of 
MacGregor,* ivho still trace their descent from Kenneth MaeAlpin. Now, 
the fact of their tracing back their pedigree to both Kenneth II. and 
Gregor taken in connection with the place these names appear in the list, 
shows these two names to refer to the same man. 

The want of uniformity in the lists, which reckon the ancestors of Alpin 
in the male line back to Fergus, would lead a person to suppose that there 
existed great doubt as to the proper filiation of Alpin. But on the other 
hand, if the number of generations in the different lists between Alpin 
and Eric is found to be the same, a person would think the conclusion rea- 
sonable that the men represented in the different lists were identical 
under different or somewhat different forms of name. This last 
conclusion might also be thought to be justifiable, when the fictitious 
and mystic work accomplished by Fordun in the Scottish historic records 
is considered. 

I have seen a list from Andrew de Wyntoun, Prior of Loch Leven, in 
the latter part of the fourteenth century, and another from the Chronicle 
of Mailros, both of which traced back only a few generations from Alpin, 
but far enough to plainly show that the male line of Alpin's ancestors 
went back through Ferchard III. With these partial lists it is unneces- 
sary for me to trouble you farther, especially when it is considered that I 
present you the full list from the Book of "Lecan compared with and re- 
vised by the Scottish authorities. After we get back to Ere we connect 
with other lists, one from the same source, revised by the Scotch, and 
then from lists which I have reason to believe correct and will show to be 
so, until we arrive at the link at which we will terminate our list. 

I think it, however, expedient to give a limited exegesis of some of the 

* The Albanic Duan mentions not either Sealbhach or Gregair in its list of Gaelic kings. IBat 
there can no doubt remain that Sealbhach, Dungal and Uregor are but other names on paper 
lor Alncealach, Rudhri and Cathmal, respectively ; and these again for Eochaidh, Alpin and 
Kenneth. The baptismal name of Kenneth II. was doubtless Eoghan, as is given in one of the 
lists, and Eachaln is Caiueach, which Is the Scotch form of Kenneth. 



28 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

names in our list as compared with some of those appearing in other lists 
represented to be of the ancestors of Alpin, such, for example, as that 
Dr. Geo. Chalmers adopted and followed : Referring to numbers 34, 35 
and 36 of our list I may remark that the name-forms Fearchard, Fear- 
char, Fearchadh, Fearchann and Fearghaes being often misentered for 
each other in the old Gaelic histories, accounts, doubtless, for the form 
Feargus appearing in the short list referred to of Wyntoun and the chron- 
icle of Mailros in the place of the proper form Fearcar or Fearcard. 
"Wyntoun," says Chalmers, "enters Sealbhach as Sewald," which is 
true of the chronicle of Maelros also as to that name ; but we have as posi- 
tive historic proof as is necessary in Tiernach and other ancient authorities 
that the name of the father of Sealbhach was spelled Fearchard or Fear- 
char not Fearghus. The literal meaning of this last form is " a male 
relation " or a " kinsman ; " that of Fearghaes or Fergus would be prop- 
erly " a male scion," having in it, perhaps, a little more of the idea of 
" champion " of a house than the other, but, considering, the root gaes, 
which is the original of our word " house," in the sense of clan or blood 
relations, which must necessarily be its root meaning, then Fearghaes 
means " a kinsman " just as the other, use having giving to it the heroic 
idea.* 

The Fergus, then, of the short list of Wyntoun is undoubtedly for the 
Fearcard of our list (34) ; and, in like manner, the Aedh Finn of our list 
would be represented by Feredhach, our number (35) ; that is, this last 
form would be in effect the other form ; for Feredhach equals exactly 
Finedhaeh, Fear having here the same meaning as Fine.f 

This name Aedh is sometimes spelled Eochaidh, and even Eoghan, the 
diminutive or genitive being often and indifferently used among the Gael9 
for the root form. For example, Eochaidh Buidh, son of Aidhan, is 
called by Fordun, in his history, Eugenius (i.e., Eoghan), Eochaidh and 
Aedh; by Bocthius and Buchanan he is called Eugenius IV., and St. 
Adamnan, in his lifeof Columba, whi< '■ he wrote abouttheyear 700, A. D., 
calls him Aedh. If Aedh Finn, as here, was originally written Aedhghan 
it might be translated Eugenius. The forms in Chalmers' list correspond- 
ing to our numbers 34 and 35 were Eochaidh and Eochaidh. Another 



* The old listof Fordun and Buchanan, which has Alpin to descend from this same Ainceal- 
lach, enters this name in their Latin histories as " Amberkellelhus, the son of Findanus." Dr. 
Keating (Hist. p. 141) in speaking of the Tuatha de Danaana, having already spoken of two 
castes of them, says: " The third casto, called Danaan, was composed of such a6 were devoted 
to the arts ; for ' dan * (daun) and ' ceard • mean the same thing, i e., 'art,' ' handicraft.' Thus 
they were named Danaans from their 'dans' or 'arts.'" Fear, as above explained, meaning 
Finn, you find by this that Fearchard means the same as Findan, and besides have occasion to 
notice how Fordun and his class have doctored the Scottic history. 

t Fine, a clan, family, tribe, as Na Fineachan Gaedhalach, the Highland clans. A» regards 
color both Fine and Fear mean ' fair* not ' white ' as Wyntoun has expressed in translating 
Aedh Finn ' Hed whyte ' or ' white head,' perhaps for the sake of his metre. It is, of course 
often translated white, in accordance with Cormac's Glossary ; "Fear, i.e., find, i.e., white," 
etc. 



NORTH BRITAIN. 29 

variation I have seen was Ewan and Ewan ; but they managed to have 
so many Eochaidh's and Eoghans in the Gaelic histories that I have thought 
it must have been a handy name they sometimes gave a man, whose 
proper name was of some other form, or, vice versa, a man's pnenomen 
might have been a certain Gaelic form, let that form be what it might, 
and it be written down by a Saxon scribe long after the man was dead 
under some other form ; for there is reason to believe that man}' such 
scribes who meddled with the Gaelic histories did not properly under- 
stand the language or its idioms, and in some cases rather tried their 
ingenuity in punning upon it than in doing justice by a fair transcrip- 
tion. In our number (36) we have Fergus, who may possibly in the 
popular mind, have been set down as Fergus II. ; for the popular mind, 
we know, confounds all chronologic distinctions ; but what I want to re- 
mark about him is that he may have been entered in some of the histories 
by his surname, which would be Mac^seachtain (37), which equaled, as 
then understood, MacEachan, the N being here for the article prefixed and 
not belonging to the root, and the t being aspirated and quiescent. What 
I mean is that a man, although likely to be called by his Christian name, 
would be not unlikely to be called by his surname ; such surnames, I mean, 
as were then in use, the Christian name of the father after Mac, and this 
mac, clan or cran, or whatever the prefix might be, that went to make up 
the surname, would, of course, be sometimes dropped and the father's 
name be applied to a man, both in speech and writing, as if it were h'.s 
own praenomen. This would be a mistake in fact, but popular use 
would render it permanent in print.* Thus the name Eochaidh being 
involved in Fearedhach, which is Eochaidh with the prefix Fear, we have 
in effect in our numbers 34 and 35, in the first case the name Eochaidh 
involved in the surname, and in the second case involved in the praeno- 
men, which would leave it not at all difficult for fictionists, such as Fordun, 
or Saxon scribal punsters, to make out several of the name of Eugenius 
or Eochaidh almost wherever they might please in the list, although the 
nominatives in the Gaelic were of different forms. 

I think it true, as implied in the histories generally, that among the 
Gaels the praenomen Fergus may have been sometimes applied to a man, 
indicating the idea of "champion," "hero," although his praenomen 
proper might have been of some other form. Would then the Christian 
name of our Fergus (3f>) have been the Domhaugart of Chalmers after 
Fordun & Co.? And, as Sneachtain means Toiseach, would this form (37) 



* When this name is spelled Sneachtain it represents Toiseach and is what remains of the 
form Toiseanachthain, consequent upon the aspiration and quiescence of letters after mac, 
clan, etc. Neachthaiu, consequent upon the aspiration of the t equals Neachain.and the X pre- 
fixed to this form not being radical, the form really equals Eachain. For further light on this 
form of name see the account of the sons of TJisneach (i.e. Tuiseanach) in Keating's History of 
Ireland, p. 2G7; Nacsi, son of TJiseanach equals Aenghaes, son of Tuiseanach. And for light on 
the derivation of the form Neachtan, see as to Loch Neach, for example, which equals Loch- 
an-Etbach, the lake of Eochaidh, or of the horse. Thus the verb to neigh. 



30 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

be for Donald Brec who fell leading on hi3 Gaels against the Britons in 
642, A. D.? 

•The names in our numbers (38), that is, Colman, and that in (39), that 
is, Baedhan, are indeed the names of celebrated saints in the time of these 
men, namely, St. Colum, abbot of Iona, and his immediate successor in 
the abbacy, St. Baedhin. Whether it happened so with men generally 
it is pretty certain that many of the saints of those days were not 
usually called by their proper Christian names. Keating tells us in his 
history that the proper name of St. Colum Cille was Crimhthan (pron. 
Crivan or Griffin) ; that he got the name of Colum Cille or " Dove of the 
Church," as a familiar appellation from his school-fellows, when a boy, he 
was accustomed so punctually to attend the church. After telling us that 
this soon became in effect his proper name, his baptismal name Crimthan 
being forgotten, he says: " Such changes often happened with the names 
of holy men. St. Mochuda is another instance of it. His baptismal name 
was Carthach. There was St. Caemhan, also a disciple of Patrick, whose 
first name was Mac Naesi ; and then there was St. Patrick himself, whose 
baptismal name was Succath, and to whom St. Germanus gave the name of 
Magonius, when he confirmed him, and upon whom the Pope, St. Celes- 
tinus, conferred, lastly, the name Patricius, preparatory to his mission to 
Ireland to propagate the faith therein." "Again, there was St. Finbar, 
the patron saint of Cork, whose baptismal name was Louan ; and so it 
happened with many others of the same class." (Keating's Hist., pp. 458 
and 4G0.) I may add that this St. Finbar is written also St. Barfinn and 
merely St. Bar. And St. Mochua (not Mochuda) is St. MacDhuach, 
the sound of the latter combination giving rise to the form Mochua. 
It is not here intended to be implied that the men represented in our 
numbers 38 and 39 were those saints, Colum Cille and Baethin, any more 
than it is intended to be implied that they were not good men ; but it is 
not altogether improbable that they may have had baptismal names differ- 
ent from those they have in the list, which their people may have applied 
to them after the names of those saints. Would then our Colman (38) 
have been identic witli the Eochaidh Buidh of the list of Chalmers, and our 
Baedhan (39) witli his Aedhan, for, a person would think, whether it so 
happened in this case or not, that Aedhan, with the B prefixed, is Baed- 
han ?* 



* There is historic, evidence of some celebrated warriors, such as Constantino mac Acdh 
mic Cinaedha and Sealbhach mac Ferchur mic Feredhaigh having in their old age entered 
monasteries. The last named I find put down also in the history under the name of Eochal, a 
name which arose to him from his monastic life. And here is an illustration of how two such 
names of one man may be made in the after history to stand for two men. Wyntoun does not 
make the mistake, for he puts in its proper place " Sewald, called by some Eochal ; " but the 
chronicle of Maelros commits the egregious blunder of putting in the proper place of Sealbhach, 
"'his son Sewald; to whom succeeded Eochal VenonosuB," a mistake evidently which was 
likely to lead to many mistakes. 



NORTH BRITAIN. 31 

In number (40) of our list we have Eochaidh, in number (41) Mured- 
hach and in (42) Loarn, names of which, if the men in the list aforemen- 
tioned of Chalmers be identic with those in our list, would stand for 
Gabhran, Domhanghart, and Fergus respectively in that list. Neither the 
ancient Scottish histories, as Fordun and his followers, nor Tiernach, nor 
the Annals of Ulster, nor the Four Masters, who, however, are merely 
copyists of the foregoing and others, mention Loarn under that name but 
they may mention him under the form of Fergus. 

This has led some to suppose that Loarn was the proper praenomen of 
the man to whom Fergus might have been given as an honorary title. 
And what strengthens this supposition, it is thought, is the fact that in the 
interview reported of St. Patrick with Eric, the prince of Dalriada and his 
family, Loarn does not appear to have been mentioned by name, but Fergus 
obtained the saint's benediction, with a prophecy that the kingdom of Al- 
bania was to belong to his descendants, which Jocclin claims to have re- ' 
mained in their hands down to his time, 1195 A. D. ; but if it were so that 
the Loarn, who was eighth ancestor in the male line of FercharHL, was 
not identical with Fergus then this could not have been so ; for from the 
time of this Ferchar the government was certainly in the hands of his de- 
scendants and his genealogy goes back to Loarn son of Eric, which name 
occupies in the list exactly the same place as the Fergus, son of Eric, of 
the list of Fordun and Chalmers does. In the Albanic Duan, composed 
about 1057 A. D., the author makes Loarn to have been the first Scot- 
tish king in Albania, giving him a reign in his old age of ten years. Fer- 
gus he makes his next successor on the throne and gives him a reign of 
twenty-seven years, which makes the thing appear as if he were the son 
rather than the brother of Loarn, as he would appear to have made him. 

The most careful historical investigator is, on some occasions, not un- 
likely to take too much for granted. Dr. Geo. Chalmers was a laborious 
investigator himself, and in general he had great confidence in O'Flaherty 
as a pioneer for him in the Dalriadic history ; but I find that in some things 
this pioneer may not have been a perfectly safe guide. He puts down, for 
example, Eochaidh, he calls Rinneval, as the ' grandson of Donald Breae 
b}' his son Domangard,' quoting as his authority the Alban Duan ; yet I 
find the Duan of itself does not bear him out in this ; for it does not say 
who this Eochaidh' s father was, simply designating him ' Eochaidh of the 
horses.' But it is not impossible that Flaherty may have had some other 
authority for this in his mind, which he has cot quoted, and that we may 
have the said Eochaidh and his father and son in their proper places in our 
list under other forms of name? 

As to the form Loarn it may not be considered strange that some people 
have thought that form to have arisen in Scotland from the form Gabhran 
after I give the following explanation. 

The form Gabhran equals, as to parts, Gabh-ar-cathan or Can and Mac 



32 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

or Clan Sil-Ghabharchan would be pronounced Mac or Clan Lawran, or 
taking the word from the genitive without the prefix, but with this sound, 
it would be Loam. Thus, Loarn would be literally ' clan ' or ' child ' 
' of the seed of Gabhran.' The same name we might conceive to arise 
from Dhaebharchadh, genitive Dubharchan (pronounced Duveran or 
Duerin), but coming out from the genitive form with the sound Loarn as 
explained above. 

See, for illustration, our words ' teach ' and 'learn.' This last is the 
Saxon laeran, which had in that language both significations, namely, to 
teach and to learn ; and in popular use in our language, as Webster says, 
it has still both meanings. But in accordance with its root gabli, to ' take ' 
' acquire,' etc., our learn means to ' receive ' or ' acquire' ideas concern- 
ing things, that is, knowledge ; while, ' teach ' in accordance with its root 
.tabh in tabhair, to ' give,' means to give ideas of things, ' impart ' instruc- 
tion. Says Chauncey Goodrich, in his synonyms prefixed to Webster's 
Dictionary: "Learn originally had the sense of to teach, in accordance 
with the analogy of the French and other languages, and hence we occa- 
sionally find it with this sense in Shakespeare and Spenser. This usage 
has now passed away. To learn is to receive and to teach is to give in- 
struction. He who is taught learns, not he who teaches." The Saxon 
taecan meant ' to teach ' and ' to take.' The words for to ' give ' and to 
1 take ' are in the mother languages evidently only variations of the same 
root. A structure we call a ' house ' for example is a house whether we 
view it from the outside or from the inside ; but it implies a remarkable 
differentiation in the general idea of the house ; as to which of these points 
of view you have in your idea. In the former case, you may say, you 
have the ' teach,' a Gaelic word for house, Greek Je!x<u,root Jstx, to show, 
Latin doceo, root doc, to teach, etc. , for to teach is to show implying light ; 
and in the latter case, in the inside you may say you have the gaebh, 
Gaelic to take, acquire, hold, receive, cave or hole implied, the container, 
receptivity, the open hand which closes up upon what it receives, and the 
root daebh or dubh, the d being here for the g, means in one of its sense3 
a house, and in another, dark or black. The outside of the roof, thach or 
Teach, implies light, giving, imparting; the inside darkness, recipiency. 
It is a carrying out, with another root, our idea of hill, hell, hole, the same 
root varied. 

Now, although I understand the word Aedh or Edhach to be root of 
our Gaelic word Teach, a house, that is, Deach for Edhach ; and although 
I apprehend that our word ' teach ' or a slight variation of that root, must 
be originally involved in our word ' learn ;' * for otherwise it could not 



* I find our clan was not only called clan Taigh, that is, genitive of Teach, a house ; but also 
clan Dai, for Daimh or Duf, pronounced Du, a house. But, it is likely, different ramilies of the 
same general clan went under these different forms of the name. I may say further that the 
forms Aedh and Aedhach or Eth and Ethach must have been understood as equivalent to 



NORTH BRITAIN. 33 

among the ancient Saxons have had the meaning of to ' teach,' still I 
clearly perceive that if the form Loarn did arise at all from the root 
Gabhran it might have arisen in this simple way, namely, that Cinel 
Ghabhran ( the initial G in Gabhran being aspirated and quiescent after 
Cinel) would among the Gaels have been pronounced as we would pro- 
nounce Cinel Lawran, and thus the idea of two clans might be supposed 
to arise out of what was only one originally. 

I do not conceive that this idea of two clans would be likely to have 
originated early in this way among the people themselves, but in later 
times it might arise from the writings of Saxon or foreign scribes, who 
did not possess sufficient knowledge of the Gaelic language and its idioms 
to fairly represent in their histories the Gaelic historic affairs and events, 
or, even if some of them did, their object might not have been to fully and 
truthfully instruct the people upon the course and nature of the real his- 
torical events ; or, perhaps some of them foolishly thought it not expedient 
to have the general public know as fully and clearly the history of their 
country as the learned class who could criticise and investigate and 
understand the Latin and Greek and other foreign expressions they chose 
to scatter among their writings. Of course an author should feel free to 
put in a foreign word in his writings if he thinks it eminently fitting to do 
so, judging that it will serve its purpose with such as well understand it 
better than a native expression ; and it must be confessed that not all who 
may be called fair English scholars understand their mother tongue, 
equally well in the matter of the contents of books. 

It may be remarked in connection with our present subject that Tier- 
nach and the Annals of Ulster appear to speak of the Clan Loarn and the 
clan Gabhran as early as the year 700 to 720, when the sons of Ferchard 
Fada were waging their wars against Dunachadh Beag. The clan spoken 
of as in opposition to Sealbhach is clan Gamhna, which perhaps is only 
another form of Gabhran, as before this time the great clan of Gabhran 
doubtless became distinctively subdivided into rival septs, which occa- 
sionally entered into war with each other. If, however, as appears to be 
the understanding of the Irish historians, the Clan Loarn were a clan per 
se, sprung from a man whose praenomen was Loarn, but whom the old 
Scottish historians do not notice, at least under that name, I would never- 
theless understand that the name-form Loarn would be at least an exact 
literal equivalent in meaning for Dubharchon or Gubharchon ; for Loarn 



Teach and Daimh, for Aedhach is equivalent to our word Adam which is pronounced in 
Gaelic Awoo, and Edhach or Ethach to our word Edom which Bible 6tudents understand to be 
the same word originally aa Adam, meaning a house, land, red land, a reddish man, a Phoeni- 
cian, etc. Hence, you see, the foregoing shows you that Eth or Ethach, being equivalent to 
Adam and Edom, Seth and Sethach must be also equivalent and you do not wonder that mount 
Seir, that is, Sether, equal to Sethach, is Esbaw or the mount of Edom. 



3— d 



34 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

would equal as to parts, Lugharchon, sea chief, etc., etc., just as the 
others.* 

The old compilers of the Scottish history, Fordun and his followers, 
make their Fergus II. to have been the fortieth King of Scotland, and the 
reckoning of the proper Scotch genealogical list makes him twenty-second 
in male descent from Fergus 1st. This account, all things about it being 
considered, I think, on the whole, quite reasonable to say the least. The 
old authorities also are likely to have been not far from correct as to the 
time they put down for their Fergus II., the son of Eric, and in what they 
say as to this juncture of the history. I will give here the words of the old 
record as to this juncture. (39) i. e., the thirt3^-ninth king: 4t Eugenius 1st. 
Fincormachus Sonne. A valiant, just and good king. He was slain in 



* In the old Lexicons ' Dubh has among its meanings the sea, water, as Dobhar, a river, and 
that Lugh means the same originally we have the evidence of in the form Lough, the old Irish 
form of the Gaelic Loch, the same root word anciently. Moreover, in the old Lexicons Loch has 
the identical meaning of Dubh as to color, meaning black, dark, really the color of water or 
elate color. Adamnan (B. I, c. 27), says that the inhabitants of Skye ' call to this day,' the river 
in which the Pictish Chief Artbranau was baptized Dobhar Artbranan, and in Cormac's Glos- 
sary (Ir. Ar. Soc'y, 1865, p. 53) we find Dobhar is water, unde dicitur Dobarchu, i.e., an otter, as 
in another Glossary (Gaelic, Soc. Tr. Dublin, p. 12) , we find ' Dobhar a river.' Adamnan (B. II. 
c. 38) also tells us of a peasant, c who lived in the district which borders on the shore of the 
Stagnum Aporicum'or Aporic lake (by which lie is understood as meaning Lochaber), and 
placed a stake, blessed by St. Columba under the water, near the bank of the river, ' qui Latine 
dici potest Nigra Dea,' and caught a salmon of extraordinary size. This river is now called the 
Lochy, which running from loch Lochy, empties into the Linnhe loch, near fort William. The 
name the first component of which Adamnan translates Nigra was, ' Lochdea,' and in the title 
to B. I. c. 28, Adamnan has the same name in his Stagnum Lochdiae, which he located in the 
Pictish province. *' It is now," says Skene (Celt. Scot. II. 456), corrupted into Lochy in which 
the obsolete word Loch, black, is preserved." 

But Loch and Dea, more properly Dae, are two components, which, more easily recognizable 
in the forms Loch and Daebh, have the same signification; and so Lochdhea would be Loch- 
aedh and an equivalent in this sense to Lughaedh, and this would be equivalent as personal 
appellation to Dubhaedh, genitive Dubhthach, so that Lake Lochy would be translated Lake 
Lughy or Lake Duffy, as an equivalent appellation, whatever meanings the roots might have as 
differentiate from each other. 

Now, if instead of Aedh or Dae we suffix to root Lugh, Lath orLo, Dubh, Daebh, Gubh or 
Gabh, the compouent Archu, genitive Archon, a component which has also various meanings 
but as a personal appellation would equal in meaning the first part of the component that is 
Lugh or Daebh, then we shall have Loarn, or Gawran or Duverin,all easily enough under- 
stood. It may have thus arisen that the Clan Lugaidh or Loarn is called in the genealogies 
Clan Dubh. 

La, genitive Latha, for which the form Lo is sometimes used, is Gaelic for our word day, 
which shows (1) that the root ta or te of teach is involved in our word Learn, connected with 
the root of Light; and (2) that Clan Loarchan or Lodharchau would be equal in signification to 
Clan Duarchan or Clan Duverin; Aedh or dhaedh, meaning also the circle of the sun, the 
zodiac, the day. An ancient Gaelic word for day is Dia, which corresponds to Latin die; Welch 
dydh; Sanscrit, dyu; but quite a common word in use among the Irish for day is iudh, which 
anybody can see is for the old form Aedh, and would be pronounced wee about as iudh. In the 
name Lughaidh you can see the ancient root of our English word ■ light,' corresponding to day ; 
but I can hardly agree with the lexicographers, MacLeod and Dewar, that the modern Gaelic 
word Lochran, a lamp, a light, a torch, has for its second component with Lo or La crnnn, a 
tree, beam, shaft or mast; it appears to be Laegharchon or Lugharchan and to refer to the king 
of day, the light-giver, the sun. 

The word luchd is translated into our language load, burden, cargo, and also as a collective 
noun people, folks, Luchd-daimh means kinsmen; as Fear-daimh and Fearchard means a 
Kinsman. 



NORTH BRITAIN. 35 

battle by thePictes and Romans, and the whole Scottish nation was utterty 
expelled the isle by the Pictes and Romans, and remained in exile about 
the space of four and forty years, 357-360. (40). Fergus 2nd, Erthus* 
Sonne son to Ethodias,* Eugenius the First, his brother, returning into 
Scotland with the help of the Danes and Gothes and his own countrymen, 
who were gathered to him out of all countries, where they were dispersed, 
conquered his kingdome of Scotland again out of the Romans' and Pictes' 
hands. He began his reign in the year of the world 4374, in the year of 
Christ 404. He was a wise, valiant and good king. He was slain by the 
Romans in the sixteenth year of his raigne." 404-420. 

Such is the expression of the old chronicles, which represent one or two 
generations to have been born during the time of their exile. This time, 
so far as the great body of the people were concerned, appears to have 
been spent in Ireland ; and while the old chroniclers point to Denmark as 
the birthplace of Fergus, and, of course, his brothers, the Irish authorities 
seem to agree that these brothers were born in Ireland, in which country, 
that is, in its northeast part, they possessed a considerably extensive ter- 
ritory, tributary, of course, at that time, to the house of Niall Naei 
Ghiall, into whose family the exiled princes were marrying and giving in 
marriage. The account of the exile of the Scots at this time appears to 
me truthful, for at that period the Romans and Picts bore hard oii their 
principality ; and in the matter of what the Scots offer in their chronicles, 
as being the ancient history of their little kingdom, I would, of course, 
give preference to that as compared with what outsiders might have to 
object to it. 

For, in the first place, if any investigator looks with an unprejudiced 
mind into the ancient history of Scotland, preceding this Fergus, called 
thi' Second, as given in Fordun and Buchanan's History, he will, doubt- 
less, conclude that that historic representation, however much or little 
fiction there has been interwoven into its tissue, must have had a founda- 
tion in fact and will reason thus on the subject: " The country was there 
and was inhabited and must needs have had a government ; here is a history 
before me purporting to be of that country, and its government, such 
as this may have been, for that period which it claims to represent ; and 
even if there be nothing in the histories of other countries to support this 
as an authentic record, still I find nothing in history or literature to nega- 
tive, no, nor truly to controvert it; all I find in this way being a few 
doubts expressed as to it by some men, who, perhaps, could not comfort- 
ably harbor the idea of anything worthy the name of organized govern- 
ment or civilized society having existed in the British Isles before the 
times of Saints Patrick and Austin ; I, therefore, conclude that as the 
country existed, and was inhabited, and must needs have had a govern- 



* Erthus is here for Ere, and Etliodius, brother of Eugenius 1st, is for Eochaidh Muinreamhar 
of our list. This Ethodius, however, was not son to Fincorraac. 



36 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORT. 

ment of some sort, that this record claiming to be a history of that 
country, while it may contain many errors, inaccuracies and only approx- 
imations to the truth, must have had a foundation in fact, as I take it for 
granted that the majority of the inhabitants of that county were from age 
to age not insane." 

And, now. in regard to the subject we are particularly considering you 
can see plainly by the direction in which that conclusion points : 1st. If 
Loarn and Fergus mac Ere mic Ethach Murinreamhar were identical then 
the appellation Loarn or Kinel Loarn would have arisen as above indicated, 
in connection with the history, say within two centuries after he had 
died; and, thus, the men represented under the name forms Muiredhach 
and Ethach in the one list would be identifiable with those under the 
forms Domhangart and Gabhran in the other, whether or not we might 
suppose in this case the form Domhaughart was assumed in addition to 
his real name by Muiredhach, to indicate him a servant of St. Domhang- 
art, the disciple of Patrick, who was of the first or second generation 
immediately preceding him. A person would naturally conclude the 
identity inferrable from the absence of any mention of the name Loarn in 
Fordun and his followers, and from the fact that these authorities have 
bhown Alpin to have descended through Ainceallach, although they mysti- 
fied the subject here by making him the son of Findan, which, however, 
has been understood by the mystifiers as a perfect equivalent for 
Ferchard. I have wondered that Dr. Chalmers did not examine more 
closely into the course those historians pursued at this juncture. 

But, 2nd, if Loarn and Fergus were two brothers, as would appear to be 
implied in the historic Irish traditions, then there were two parallel lines 
of descent from Ere, and Ferchar III. was the first of his line after his 
eighth ancestor, who possessed the government of Dalriada and through 
him and Loarn is the line of the ancestors of Alpin reckoned back through 
Ere. Alpin would thus have descended from Ere through his son Loarn, 
whose honorary appellation was Fergus, or through his son Loarn, who 
had a brother of the name of Fergus. 

But, 3rd, as the name Loarn, ancient Lugh-archon, means the same 
exactly as Fearghus, Fear-gaes, namely, 'sea chief,' then it is so con- 
sonant with reason to think that the Irish have substituted the form Loarn, 
as an exact equivalent for the proper Scotch form Ferghus, that I have 
left the form Feargus in the list, as having been the name by which the man 
was called by the Scotch in his lifetime ; and especially as I find that in the 
case of Fergus 1st, his 22nd ancestor, the like process exactly was followed. 

In the old Scottish Chronicles, under the head of Fergus 1st, is the 
following entry: — 

" Fergus* mac Ferchard, a prince from Ireland reigned from 330 to 305 



* This man had a brother, who reigned after him, whom I call Ferchard 1. Buchanan calls 
him FeritheriB, which is a shameful misspelling of the name. 



NORTH BRITAIN. 37 

B. C. He was a wise and good king that did marry the King of the 
Pictes his daughter, that did bear him two- sons, Ferlegus and Mainus." 

None of the ancient historians represent the settlement of this Fergus 
1st in North Britain, in 330 B. C, as consequent upon a conquest of the 
country on his part ; but as consequent upon an invitation from the Scots 
already long settled there, to come and rule over them as their king. 
In the traditions, written and oral, of the Scotch themselves, they have 
accounts of colonizations from Ireland from a very early period — from 
at least double three hundred years before the Christian era — and still 
some people of modern times are so irrational as to claim that there was 
not only no Scottic Government, but not even a Scottic colony in Alba- 
nia before the settlement there of the Sons of Ere, spoken of above. 

The venerable Beda, an Anglo-Saxon writer, and who is accepted as of 
great weight upon matters of history on which he has written (temps, 672- 
734 A. D), after relating the colonizations of Britain by the Britons and 
Picts says: Procedente autem tempore Brit ania post Britones el Pictos, ter- 
tiam Scotorum nutionem Pictorum parte recepit ; qui, duce Reuda, de 
Hibernia progressi, vel amicitia vel ferro sibimet inter eos sedes, qu((s, hac- 
tenus habent, vinclicarunt ; a quo videlicet duce usque hodie Dalreudini 
vncantur, nam lingua eorum dal partem significat. Which is translated 
as follows: "In process of time Britain, after the Britons and Picts, 
received a third nation, that of t!ie Scots, into the territory of the Picts ; 
who, having emigrated from Ireland under the leadership of Reuda, 
achieved for themselves either by friendship or the sword, those seats 
among them which they possess to this day. From which leader they are 
to this day called Dalreudini; for in their language dal signifies a part." 
Dal, I remark, signifies also, a tribe, a clan ; but this is, of course, implied 
in the connection, if not in the idea of part. In speaking in another place 
in regard to Ireland Beda says: "It is properly the country of the Scots, 
who immigrating from thence, as has been said, added a third nation in 
Britain to the Britons and the Picts. There is a very large bay of the sea, 
which formerl}' divided the nation of the Picts from the Britons ; which 
bay runs from the west very far into the land, where to this day stands the 
strong city of the Britons called Alcluith. The Scots, arriving on the 
north side of this bay, settled themselves there." Beda's Compl. Wks. 
II., 35. 

Dr. Chs. O'Connor, a contemporary of the celebrated Dr. Saml. John- 
son, in his Dissertation on the History of Scotland at the end of his dis- 
sertation on the History of Ireland, tells us: That " in the time of Cormac 
O'Cuind an establishment of the Scots was made in North Britain : That 
it was in favor of Carbri Righfhada, a prince of the Deaghads of Minister: 
That Righfhada and his immediate posterity ruled that colony, as well as 
another that had settled in the present Antrim, and both colonies were 
from him called Dalriada: That the Picts, at length, forced the whole 



38 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTOET. 

colony in Britain to take flight into Ireland under their leader, Eochaidh 
Muinreamhar, and they settled in the Irish Dalriada: But that neither he 
nor his son Ere could obtain a re-establishment in North Britain ; nor was 
it effected till Loarn, son of Ere, again fixed the Scots there." 

This gentleman, who is also the author of the very comprehensive work 
entitled " Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis," written in Irish and Latin, 
with perhaps a dozen of other languages interspersed, has on different oc- 
casions repeated the above information. In his publication of O'Flaherty's 
" Vindication of Og)'gia," he gives several notes concerning this settle- 
ment, particularly a long one on page 163, wherein he shows that 
O'Flaherty is contradicting his own words in the Ogygia, where in speak- 
ing of Cormac O'Cuind, he says that he carried on a government in Al- 
bania. That the greater part of Antrim and a neighbouring part of North 
Britain were given to Carbri Riada. That some Irish Sennachies confirm 
Beda's testimony ; that the Irish and British Dalriadians were governed 
by the same family. That, the sons of Ere in the eighth generation from 
Carbri Righada re-established this colony, which had suffered much. 

Mr. O'Connor, has, of course, enlightened us somewhat, more espec- 
ially upon the exile of the Dalriadians, their return therefrom, and the 
number of generations which existed in the interval between Riada and 
the son of Ere ; but why he should intimate any connection between 
Carbri Riada and Cormac O'Cuind I know not; for the latter being of 
the second generation after the former, even though we should suppose 
them to have been contemporaries at any time, yet the one should needs 
have been so old and the other so young that there could not be supposed 
to have been any business whatever between them. My understanding is 
that the son of Conair II. was not at all contemporary with King Cormac 
O'Cuind. 

Then, in regard to what is said as to some Irish Shannachies confirming 
Beda's testimony, I may say there is nothing to be confirmed in this case, 
excepting what all know to be so probable or so consonant with truth, as 
Piukerton says, that they do not require any confirmation of it. What 
Beda says, however, as to Reuda leaves it very vague and indeterminate 
as to who his Reuda was. 

In regard to what O'Connor says about the eighth generation, in which 
he doubtless spoke from other authoiity than the old Scottish list of 
Fordun, in which he appears to have had little or no confidence, I maysav 
that I had, even from Forrlun's list, and before I saw the list from the 
Book of Lecan, deduced that Righada must have been just the eighth an- 
cestor of the son of Ere. However, I felt quite sure that the descent 
from Conair II., to Ere must have been through a different channel than 
as indicated in Fordun, in which appear before Fergus, only three 
names which are pretty well certified as being of the descent of Conair II. 
But to show how it was possible that Beda's Reuda might have referred 



NORTH BRITAIN. 39 

to a Reuda or Eeuther, who had lived ten or eleven generations before 
Eiada, let ma place before you the following tabulation : — 

4a Aengus Tuirmac 

Fiachaidh Fermhara 

Olild Eraun 

Ferchard 

Fergus 1st 

Maen 

Arondel 

Reuther 

Josina 

Findan 

Durstus 

Dothan 



2 




o 


a 


a 


o 


X. 


rt 


C 


ft 


o 


GO 


♦3 


00 






bJD -q 


.s 


+* 


1 — 


^ 


u> 


o 


o 


S-l 


o 
03 


2 
a 


+3 


^ 


■z 







fc 


in 


o 


a 




— 




H 





Carran Edar 

IMetellan Ewan 



I refer here to Reuther or Rudhri, the great grandson of Fergus "it, 
who although an Albanian by birth, was, on the rise of a war there con- 
cerning the succession, compelled to leave the country ; returning, how- 
ever, after an absence of some time in Ireland, he succeeded in putting 
himself at the head of the government. This rebellion would appear to 
have been incited and carried on mainly by one Donald, governor of Gallo- 
way then called Brigantia, on the side of Reuther, and on the other side 
by one Ferchard, Governor of Argyle, son-in-law to King Nothatus 
(Nuadhat), who was brother to Arondel and reigned after him, and uncle to 
Reuther. This caused Reuther and his followers to leave the country, as I 
have said, to which they returned after a brief absence. " The year that 
Reuther returned thus into Albion was 216 B. C." — " Reuther by Beda, in 
his ecclesiastical history of England, is named Reuda, who also supposes 
him to have been the first of the Scottic princes that set any foot in Britain, 
there to inhabit." (Hollingshead's Chronicle, vol. V., p. 49.) This 
Reuther had, as according to the history, a brother named Reuda, who 
reigned next after him, but of whom next to nothing is recorded ; and the 
name may be here only a repetition of Reuther. Notwithstanding the 
idea of some of the old authors, who have thought concerning this in the 
way given in Hollingshead, Beda may have had either no idea or a very 
indistinct one as to the particular man named Reuda or Rudhri concerning 
whom the tradition was. Such traditions sometimes refer to persons or 
circumstances more remote in time than is suspected. Conair mor is in 
the old Latin and Scoto-Saxon histories called Caractacus and Caratake. 
From this and other considerations I deduce his name in the old Irish was 



40 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

Cathair.* But the historians are unanimous that the Ernaans are derived 
from Conair mor mac Edrscol ; consequently this Conair must have been 
known among his people by the name-form Cathair, also, though he is 
entered on the records as Conair, thought, perhaps, the more classical 
form ; really the genitive or diminutive of the other. This man lived at 
the beginning of the Christian era (say 60 B. C. to 10 A. D., O'Flaherty ) 
and had to render all the assistance he could to the Scots of North Britain 
in their struggles against the Romans. He united his arms with the Brit- 
ains themselves against the foreigners, and soon his fame spread over the 
world, until, betrayed by a woman into the hands of the enemy, he was 
taken to Rome, whence he afterwards returned and died in his own coun- 
try, in his palace of Bruin da Derg, it is said. His chief residence in 
Alba was Carrick in Galloway, the name meaning a city (having also the 
idea of rock or fortress connected with it), perhaps called so after his own 
name Cathair, genitive Cathrach, from -whence this particular Carrick 
might have derived its name.f Caratake is said, in the old chronicles, to 
have had a sister named Boada, who was married to Arviragus, a king of 
the Britons under the Romans, by whom she had two daughters and a son. 
One of those daughters was afterwards married to Marius, a Roman offi- 
cial in the Island, whom the Emperor Claudius made King of the Britains, 
under himself on the death of Arviragus, his wife's father, in about anno 
73, A. D. This couple in due time had a son name Coill (his name hav- 
ing a peculiarly Gaelic physiognomy), who in his turn, on the death of 



* Cathair, genitive, Chathrach or Chathrigh after mac, whence our name Harry, Chathanair 
genitive Chaneri, whence our name Henry. " The Ernaans of the Middle Minister, " says 
Flaherty, " are descended from Cathair, the 60n of King Eadarscol, and the Southern Ernaans 
of Dun Kermna derive their origin from Dubhin, the son of this Cathair." (Ogygia, Vol. II., p t 
149). " Cathair,'' says Valiancy, " means the God Mars ; " but it may here be a variation for 
Cathan, the clan name of this man. Curi genitive or diminutive, Conri or Coneri, is, of course, 
but a variation of this, local or otherwise, and means the same. 

f The old Saxon chronicles make Caractacus to have been son of Cadallan and grandson of 
Cadall, which is as far back as they take his genealogy in the male line. Cadall in those old 
authorities, who had little or no knowledge of the Gaelic, would doubtless be meant to signify 
a Gaedhal, pronounced Gael, and Cadallan would be diminutive of this or Gaedhalan. Begin- 
ning with Caractacus there has, I thought, appeared to me an attempt in Forduu's list to ob- 
scure the Annals of North Britain, as any one may see by looking Into the list of Buchanan, for 
example, from number 18 to number 25, inclusive of these two extremes. They begin by seem- 
ingly attributing to Caratake an origin different from what he had. It did first appear to me as 
if 6ome South British author by aglossing over with his Cadall, Cadallan and Caractacus name- 
forms, may have taken into his head to transfer the idea of Caralake's origin to Welsh Britain 
(South Britain was, of course, all Welsh at that time), or rather to Brigantia, which some 
claimed to be Welsh, but which was really Gaelic and is now called Galloway. It makes no 
difference whatever in my idea whether they allow that Caratake was born in North Britain or 
in Erin, it being pretty certain that he was the Conair mor mac Edirscol mic Eoghan of Tier 
nach and the Irish Annals, and thus might have been, harmlessly enough to them, the Gaed- 
halan, son of Gaedhal, or in their own hard consonants, the Cadallan, son of Cadall of the old 
South British chroniclers, he being, of conrse, a Gael, Gall, or Call, a real Scot. Mr. Beauiord, 
in Valiancy, calls, this Conair, ' son of Trenmor,' i.e., 'son of great strength,' and says he 
was the first who built the palace of Tara, which during his lifetime was partially destroyed; 
but he having rebuilt it, it afterwards suffered destruction by Are, with its builder, the incen- 
diary being one ' blind Anccll,' a general of Conair's with whom he had had a disagreement 
and who revenged himself in this manner. 



NORTH BRITAIN AND ERIN. 41 

his father Marius, in 125 A. D. (he appears to have lived long) became 
king of the Britains, and is said to have had a reign of fifty-four years. 

The Irish Chronicles might seem to be very meagre in their accounts of 
their kings, but I have discovered that they have entered some of them 
under several names ; and what may not appear concerning the man under 
one of the names may appear concerning him under another. Now, this 
Conair mor lived in the generation of the first entry of the Eomans into 
Britain, and if we suppose him to have been not even monarch, but only a 
powerful provincial Governor of Erin, still, reflecting upon the universal 
claim of the Irish history that Caledonia, or a certain portion thereof, had 
been colonized by and was to a large degree dependent for its political 
existence upon Erin, he would have to regard himself as a dastard in- 
deed if he had continued to look quietly on and left his North British 
relations as well as his South British neighbors wholly at the mercy of 
their foreign foes during the progress of the invaders from South to North 
of Britain. It is therefore what we should reasonably expect to learn that 
Carat ake would have conducted an army over sea to help these peoples 
in their struggles, and this he did. "With the South British peoples he 
joined his arms, peoples "who, from neighborliness, intermarriages, etc., 
were in a manner as dear to him as his own Gaels ; but even the combined 
forces had eventually to retreat northwards, when it happened to Caratake 
as I said. Let it never be imagined by any sane man that the monarch of 
Erin looked calmly on, seated in his Western isle, as indifferent as we might 
suppose a barnacle on a rock to be, and did not cross the channel in con- 
duct of his forces and assist all he could in the prolonged endeavor to expel 
the invader from the British soil. 

Tiernach gives to Conair mor a reign of eighty years, O' Flaherty sixty, 
and Keating only thirty. I think most of the authorities agree upon a 
reign for him of not less than sixty years. But contemporarily with him I 
find they have several other names to succeed each other, his whole reign 
overlaping these several. Now, as it is nonsensical to think there could 
have been two or more contemporary monarchs of Erin, so it is not unrea- 
sonable to conclude that at least some of those who appear to be con- 
temporary monarchs were merely other names by which he himself was 
entered in the histories. Although under his own name he is not said to 
have gone abroad, yet it is reasonably understood that it is he whose 
foreign expeditions are spoken of under the name of Crirathan. 

O'Flaherty speaks of Crimthan's foreign expedition, in which he had ob- 
tained a very rich booty. Among which was a golden chariot ; a pair of 
tallies studded with three hundred brilliant gems; a quilt of singular 
texture worked with a variety of colors and figures ; a cloak interwoven 
with threads of gold, such as Virgil mentions " (Caratake may have got that 
when he was at Rome); "a sword engraved with various figures of 
serpents, which were of the purest gold ; a shield embossed with refulgent 



42 ^ CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

silver studs ; a spear which always gave an incurable wound ; a sling so 
unerring that it never missed; two hounds coupled with a chain, which was 
worth three hundred cows; with other valuable rarities." 

Those whose reigns are fairly overlapped by that of Conair mor, and 
which follow his name (that of Lughaidh Riabh n Dearg properly pre- 
ceding his) are Crimthan and Carbri Cathan. These two represent him- 
self under different forms. The Concobar Abradh Ruadh, which is here, 
does not belong under this head. He is misplaced, belonging to the posi- 
tion Cathair mor occupies, while the latter belongs five generations 
further on. 

After the last of these names, i.e., of Carbri Cathan, comes Feredhach 
Finn Fectnach, whose proper name was Muiredhach, i.e., he was called 
Morand, which is Morchand, Gaelic Muiredhach, for which Feredhach. 
He was called son of Carbri Cathan, i.e., of Crimhthan or Conair mor, and 
has the reputation of having been a very just man. 

To Feredhach succeeded his son Fiaehaidh Findalaidh, who is the Carbri 
of the other list, the grandson of Conair mor ; to whom succeeded his son 
Tuathal Techtmhar, who is the Moghallamh of the other list, the great- 
grandson of Conair mor. And to him succeeded his son Feidhlimidh Recht- 
ruhar, who is the Conair II., the great-great-grandson of Conair mor of 
the other list. 

So, when we precede Conair mor in time, Lughaidh, the father of 
Crimhthan of the one list is the Eadarscol, the father of Conair mor, of 
the other ; and so each corresponds to the other in those two lists as you 
go back, until you arrive at the identification of Labhradh Lore, the last 
given of that line, with Eramhan, and he with Olild Eron. 

After reviewing what had been published concerning the colonization of 
North Britain by Carbri Righada Pinkerton says : " This account of the 
matter is so consonant with probability that it would almost support 
itself independently of all the ancient authorities which are united in its 
favor." 

Again, "It may be thought that Kennedy and O'Connor, writers of 
this, i.e., the 18th, century, are but poor supporters of Beda's author- 
itv. But it must he reflected that concerning the origin of the Dalreudini 
of Ireland, all the Irish writers, Keating, Usher, O'Flaherty, etc., etc., are 
accordant and sa}-, the name sprung from Carbri Riada. 

" This Carbri, or as they call him, Eochaidh Riada, appears in the old 
genealogy of the Scottish Kings, repeated at the coronation of Alexander 
III. and is preserved by Diceto, Fordun and many others." 

But why may not an old tradition, referring to one of the same line of 
descent, who had lived ten or eleven generations before have been referred 
also to this Carbri? 

In his survey of the number of generations between the son of Ere and 



NORTH BRITAIN AND ERIN. 43 

the father of Carbri Riada Pinkerton says in referring to the number eight, 
as given for that space in O'Connor and in the Book of Lecan, which is 
surely the truth." Now, how did Mr. Pinkerton know that eight genera- 
tions was here " surely the truth?" Simply by taking pains to trace up 
and compare all the authorities concerning it and then deducing as I 
did, before I saw the list from the Book of Lecan that this conclusion must 
be correct. 

In some genealogical lists we must allow it possible that a name, say 
which belonged to the original may have been at some time accidentally 
omitted in the process of transcription, while in another case a name 
which did not belong to the list may have crept in ; but that any number 
of names, which had belonged to the body of a list, should have disap- 
peared from it or which did not belong to the body of a list should come 
to appear in it I would decide most likely to have been the effect of design, 
and not of accident. 

O'Flaherty, in giving the genealogic list of MaeConn, monarch of Ire- 
land, where 25 generations were present in the list, remarks that there are 
23 generations wanting; for that on the part of MacConn's mother, whom 
he represents to have been daughter of Conn Ced-Cathach there were 23 
generations more in her list on the side of her father. I have not yet 
learned who the Conn Ced-Cathach was, who could have been father- 
in-law to King MaeConn ; but the fact appears to be that the Conn Ced- 
Cathach, who had been monarch of Ireland before him, was the father <if 
MaeConn. Conn and MaeConn are here but honorary titles pertaining to 
these families. One of those lists was doubtless inflated. 

Andrew de Wyntoun, Pryor of Loch Leveu, the latter part of the 14th 
century, has the same number of names between Eramhon, their first 
Scottic king of Ireland, and Simeon Brec, as has Keating; but the forms 
of the names are not always strictly the same, as he wrote in the Scotch- 
Saxon and in metre. Between Simeon Brec and his Aengus Tuirmac, de 
Wyntoun has six names more in his list than has either of the other Irish 
lists, that is between Aengus Tuirmac, and his father, as according to 
them, he has inserted six name forms in his list. 

In order to make a close approximation to the time of Fergus, the son 
of Ere, we must take into consideration what the old chroniclers and 
Buchanan have said that he was killed in war with the Romans in about 
the year 420 A. D. According to Beda (vol. II. , complete wks. ), " from 
385 to 416 the Picts and Scots ravage South Britain, when the Romans 
who had already evacuated the island, upon earnest request of the Britons 
sent thither to their assistance a legion, who having worsted the Picts and 
Scots in battle return to Rome." — " On this," i.e., on the advice of the 
Romans, "the Britons built a sod wall across the island (A. D. 416), 
which, however, did not avail to keep out the northern hordes." 



44 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

Upon the invitation of the Britons the Angles and Saxons came into the 
island, commencing 447 to 449 A. D." 

Now, while it is possible that there may be a mistake in saying that Fer- 
gus was killed in war with the Romans on British soil and in saying that he 
and his brothers returned from exile just at the time here stated, still I 
have not the least doubt that with respect to the time of the sons of Ere 
coming to recover their patrimony at the head of an army the old author- 
ities may be very much nearer to chronological correctness than the mod- 
ern ones, who have put the date altogether too late. This last class of 
chronologers appear to have carried out their plan by somewhat inflating 
the genealogical list between Fergus and Carbri Riada and somewhat 
abridging the number of reigns which actually were between Fergus and 
Aedhan. By an inspection of the old list and a comparison with theirs it 
will be found that they omit four names or reigns in that old list between 
Fergus, son of Ere and Aedhan, son of Gawran, and they have added to 
their list, between said Fergus and Conair, son of Moghall, two names 
more than what I And properly belongs to it. The names they have re- 
jected from the old list for the space aforesaid are as follows with their 
times : — 

Eugenius IL, son of Fergus II. 420-452 A. D. 

Constantine I., son of Dongard 457-479 A. D. 

Eugenius III. , son of Comgall 535-558 A. D. 

Kinatellus son of Comgall 569-570 A. D. 

The time here represented amounts, as you see, to 78 years, which, per- 
haps, would represent the difference between the true time of the return of 
Fergus and his brothers from exile to their patrimony and the time which the 
new chronologers have put down for it. Thus 503, the time they have 
put down as that of the invasion of Fergus and his brothers, minus 78, 
leaves 425 A. D. for the time of the return of the children of Ere from 
their exile. If this be correct, then the length of the life of Fergus, after 
his return, let that have been of a long or short duration, leaves the time of 
his death to have been correspondingly different from the time set down for 
his death in the old chronicles. 

The two names which those new chronologers added to the list between 
the son of Ere and Carbri Riada, and which are additional to what appear 
in the list in the Book of Lecan, are Ciongai and Guari, the first of which 
appears to be a repetition of Cintai in a blotched form, and the second, 
doubtless, an epithet applied to him in his da.y or in MSS. after he had 
died. 

I do, on the whole, favor the keeping pretty close to the date set down 
in the old chronicles as that of the return of Fergus, son of Ere, from his 
exile, that is, the keeping rather closer to it than possibly allowing ones' 
self to deviate from it farther than I have indicated. The time, in this 



NORTH BRITAIN AND ERIN. 45 

case, is in the neighborhood of what Buchanan and the old chronicles have 
given for it without any doubt. What follows will make my reasons for 
this more clear. 

Roderic O' Flaherty who wrote his Ogygia about 1684 tells us considera- 
ble about Loam, or rather about his daughters. He relates how Erca, 
Loam's daughter, was married to Muiredhach, son of Eoghan, son of 
Niall of the Nine Hostages, by whom she had a son Muirchertach, called 
Mac Erca after the name of his mother, who became in his time monarch 
of Ireland and reigned according to him from 513 to 534, but according 
to Keating from 497 to 527 A. D. 

Keating, who wrote his history of Ireland about 1G00 A. D., s.Tys: "It 
was twenty years after the battle of Ochan that the six sons of Ere, son 
of Eochaidli Muinreamhar, passed over to Alba. They were named the 
two Anguses, the two Loams and the two Ferguses. 

" Three hundred and seven years had passed from the time of Conchobari 
son of Nessa to that of Cormac son of Art; two hundred and four years 
from the time of Cormac until the battle of Ochan was fought; and it was 
twenty j-ears after that event when the sons of Ere emigrated to Alba.'' 
(Keating' s Hist, of Ir. p. 420.) The date of the battle of Ochan he sets 
down for 483 A. D., and consequently the sons of Ere, he speaks of here, 
could not have gone to Alba before- 503, which is the date Keating, 
O'Flaherty, Drs. Geo. Chalmers, Jas. Brown and all that class of the new 
chronology have decided upon for the invasion, as they call it, of the sons 
of Ere. But this either refers to another emigration, possibly of some of 
the children of Erca, that is, Loarn's grandchildren, or it is certainly 
nearly one century later than the return from exile of the children of Ere 
properly so understood. 

That there was a tradition of an invasion of Scotland having taken place 
at about the beginning of the fifth century is certain ; for in his work on 
the ' Topography of Ireland Giraldus Cambrensis', a Norman ecclesiastic, 
whose mother was Welsh, and who accompanied the Anglo-Norman expe- 
dition to Ireland in 1185 A. D., at which time he wrote, says: "When 
Niall enjoyed the sovereignty of Ireland the six sons of Muiredhach, king 
of Ulster, having equipped a large fleet, made themselves masters of the 
north of Britain and the descendants of that people, especially called Scots, 
inhabit that corner to this day." This writer confounds Muiredhach 
Muindearg, the provincial king of Ulster in the time of Niall, with Muired- 
hach the grandson of Niall, by his son Eoghan, of two generations later. 

Speaking in his preface (p. xxv.) in controverting the statements of this 
Cambrensis and Campion, Keating says: "This Murccrtach sent his six 
brothers into Scotland and one of them Fergus mor mac Erca was the first 
king of the Scottish race in Alba." Now, you perceive the evident mis- 
take here of Dr. Keating; for, Murchertach being on his mother's side a 
grandson of Loarn, could not possibly have been a brother of the Loarn 



46 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

who had been his grandfather, nor a brother of the Fergus who was that 
Loam's brother. Secondly-, it is a great mistake for any one to say in the 
face of the ancient Scottish records themselves that Fergus, file son of 
Ere, was the first king of the Scottish race in Alba. 

Dr. Keating distinguishes the different invasions of Alba by the Scots 
in order as they took place from age to age as follows : First, that under 
Aengus Oll-Buadhach, son of Fiachaidh Labhrann: Second, that of Rech- 
taidh Righ-dearg: Third, that of Carbri Riada: Fourth that of Mae Conn: 
Fifth, that of Fothadh Conan, sou of MacConn : Sixth, that of Colla Uais and 
bis brothers : Seventh, that of Crimthan mac Fidhach : Eighth, that of Ere, 
son of Eochaidli Muinreamhar, son of Aegus Feart, one of the descendants 
of Carbri Riada: The}' are his descendants who are called the Cinel 
Gabhran of Alba ; and the Cinel Lodhairn ; Cinel Comhghaill ; ' Cinel 
Aengusa; and Cinel Conchreechie of the isles: Ninth, that of Mani Leam- 
hna and his brother, the ancestors of the dukes of Lennox and the Euge- 
nians of the Mearns ; and he adds that it was after the time of Niall of the 
Nine Hostages that these (that is, referring to those under the ninth head) 
went to make settlements in Alba ; ' Tenth, that of the sons of Muiredhach 
the son of Eoghan, the son of Niall of the nine Hostages, who were known 
as the two Loarns, the two Aenguses and the two Ferguses." 

This tenth in order enumerated he appears to understand as the last 
Scottish invasion of Alba. It will be noticed too that he distinguishes 
this from that of Ere, son of Eochaidh Muinreamhar, which he has put 
under the eighth head. His translator, in a foot-note, says, that ' it was a 
mistake of Keating to say that these were the six sons of Muiredhach ; that 
they were the sons of Eochaidh Muinreamhar, as Keating himself had 
stated on the 420th page of his history,' where he said that 'it was 
twenty years after the battle of Ochan when the six sons of Ere, son of 
Eochaidh Muinreamhar, migrated to Alba.' 

It would not look at all strange here if it were intended to be said that 
several of the children of Erca, daughter of Loarn by Muiredhach, the 
grandson of Niall Naei Ghiall, had emigrated to Alba, as private citizens, 
in 503 A. D., or thereabouts ; but if Dr. Keating, Roderic O'Flaherty or 
any other writer ancient or modern has intended or does intend to say that 
the invasion of the sons of Ere, son of Eochaidh Muinreamhar, took 
place in 503 A. D., or near thereabouts, he makes a mistake of about one 
century. 

I have said before that the going to Alba by Fergus 1st is not repre- 
sented as an invasion by him of that country but as undergone quietly at 
the solicitation of the Scots already there. It is no wonder, therefore, 
that he is not noticed in the historical enumeration of the invasions. But, 
I consider, that under his third head would have been the proper place for 
Keating to have noticed the invasion by the Rudher or Rudhri, above 
mentioned ; and then Carbri Riada properly under the fourth head. 



NORTH BRITAIN AND ERIN. 47 

The comparison of the numbers of successive generations, within a 
considerably long period, is a great help towards the determination of the 
true dates. That the date 503 was the time of the grandchildren of Loarn 
or Fergus or both and corresponded to the time of Murchertach mor Mac 
Erca, King of Ireland and to Gabhran and part of the time of Aedhan, 
son of Gabhran of the old list of Buchanan, at which time, as Skene says, 
' the kingdom proper of Dalriada had its commencement ' can be made as 
clear as that the most dull and stupid will apprehend it. But, although 
Skene says that the kingdom proper of Dalriada had its commencement 
with Aedhan, son of Gawran, it could only have received then some new 
life from Aedhau's successes in war, perhaps with some slight assistance 
to him from Ireland, for I do not find that there was any invasion of Alba 
at that time from any quarter. What Mr. Skene refers to is, I think, 
mainly that in the time of Aidhan, by the good offices of St. Colum Cille, 
who was a cousin to the then king of Ireland, the Albanic Dalriada became 
free from being tributary to the mother country, Ireland, which made it, 
in effect, an independent government. Aidhan accompanied St. Colum 
to the great council of Drumceat in Ireland, where this and much more 
was accomplished by St. Colum. 

If Keating or any of those who referred to 503 as the date of a Scottic 
invasion of Alba had any distinct idea of what they referred to it can 
only be to a private immigration of the grandchildren of that Loarn who 
came into the country about one century before in return from exile. 
These children would also have been the great-grandchildren of Niall the 
great, by his grandson Muredhach, son of his son Eoghan : but of 
such a supposed private emigration I have found no historic evidence. 

A good way to test the date of the invasion or return from exile of the 
sons of Ere arises from the following circumstance : St. Colum Cille was, 
for example, a contemporary of Congall son of Comgall and of Aidan son 
of Gawran, kings of Dalriada, who were third in male descent from Fer- 
gus mor, that is, his great-grandsons ; and Colum Cille through Erca, his 
daughter, was third in descent from or great-grandson of Loarn. The 
descents are as follows: — 

Neall Naei Ghiall Ere 



Eoghan, mic. Loarn, mic. Fergus, mic. 

Muiredhach, mic. Erca his daughter nigh. Domangart, mic. 



Muirchertach, mac. Feidhlimidh, mic. Comgall, mic. Gabhran, mic. 
Colum Cille, mac. Congall, mac. Aidhan, mac. 

This, you see, is a plain exhibit so far. The second husband of Erca, 
daughter of Loarn, was Fergus, son of Conall Gulban, son of Niall Naei 



48 



CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 



Ghiall. And, thus, it is seen that the sons of Ere were contemporaries of 
Conall Gulban, son of Niall and flourished in the latter part of the fourth 
century and the beginning of the fifth when he did. But if the invasion 
of the sons of Ere were in 503, as the moderns have supposed it to have 
been then it would have corresponded in time to the place in this tabula- 
tion occupied by Comgall and Gabhran and Murchertach mac Erca, King 
of Ireland, and not two full generations back of that time, as it really 
did, as indicated by the place in the table of Loarn and Fergus. 

Moreover, St. Adamnan was of the same family of St. Colum Cille, both 
being descended in the male line from Conall Gulban and in the female 
line from Loarn and his pedigree is given, which we may compare with 
that of Ferchar Fada, who was lineally descended in male line from Loarn. 
The death of Adamnan took place, according to Tiernach, in 704, and 
that of Ferchard Fada in 711 ; the steps are as follows: — 



Niall Nali Ghiall died 404. 

Conall Gulban, mic. 

Fergus, mic. 

Sedna, mic. 

Colum, mic. 

Aedh, mic. 

Tini, mic. 

Eonan, mic. 

Adaman died 704 mac. 



Eric. 

Loarn, i.e., Fergus, mic. 
Muredhach, mic. 
Eochaidh, mic. 
Baedhan, mic. 
Colman, mic. 
Sneachtain, mic. 
Fergus, mic. 
Feredhaeh, mac. 
Ferchard died 711, mac. 



This tabulation might indicate that Ere had been born say a third or 
half a generation before Niall Nael Ghiall, and this last supposition would 
be strengthened by the time put down in the old Scottish history, say 
Buchanan's, as that of the death of Fergus or 420 A. I)., while the time 
of Niall's demise is put down by O'Flaherty for 405. They are both, of 
course, represented to have fallen in war, but if they both had lived to 
the limit of the length of the ordinary life of man in their country and 
age, they might, perhaps, have died at about the half length of a gener- 
ation say fifteen or sixteen years apart. 'But it is seen that the difference 
is only fifteen or sixteen years between the times of the deaths of these 
two, as it did or may have happened, which may indicate that Ere had 
been born fifteen or twenty years before Niall. 

Says O'Flaherty (Ogygia I. 236): "Erica, the daughter of King 
Loarn, was twice married, first to Muredhach, the grandson of Niall, 
the great, by his son Eugenius, by whom she had Murchertach, king of 
Ireland, Feredhaeh, Tiernach, and Maen. Her second husband was Fer- 
gus, the son of Conall Gulban, first cousin to her former lord, by whom 
she had Sedna, the progenitor of nine Irish kings ; Feidhlimidh, the father 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 49 

of St. Columba, tutelar saint of Ireland and Scotland ; Loam and Bren- 
dan ; concerning whom is extant the following ancient fragment. 

Chethre mic la Muiredhach, 

Fri h' Eairc, ba slocht Saor; 
Feredhach agus Tiernach, 

Muirchertach is Maon. 
Chethre mic la Fearghus, 

Go n' Eairc ccubha ccudna; 
Breuudan agus Lughadh, 

Feidhlim agus Sedna. 

Which is Anglicised as follows by Mr. Healy the translator of the 
Ogygia: — 

" Four brave sons had Muiredhach 

By Erk, au offspring rare; 
Feredhach aud Tiernach, 

Muirchert aud Maen they were." 
f Four brave sons great Feargus had, 

By Erk, same lovely fair; 
They Brendan bright and Lughaidh, 

Feidhlim and Sedna were." 

The word cceudna means ' the same,' referring to what has gone before. 
It was largely in metric composition that the Gaels preserved the history 
of their country and clans. These children, then, of Erca, the daughter of 
Loarn, referred to in those two stanzas, who would be called Mac Earc 
from their mother's name, would be the persons who might have emigrated 
to Alba, if any such emigration took place, at the opening of the sixth 
century, as has been reported by the new style chronologers, for this was 
the time, in the main, of their mid life. 

And it would be no cause of wonder to me if I were informed on good 
authority that the man Feredhach, which would likely be recorded in the 
history as Feargus mac Earc, and Lughaidh, which would of course be 
recorded as Loarn mac Earc, being brothers by the same mother, may, if 
they did emigrate at that time to Alba, as private citizens, have given rise 
to the tradition of the invasion of Alba, in the sixth century, by Loarn and 
Fearghus, the sons of Earc, which tradition would inevitably be con- 
founded, with the tradition or history of the sons of Ere, the son of 
Eochaidh Muinreamhar, who had returned from exile nearly a century 
previously. 

But there is no necessity here for any confusion whatever in the idea 
as to the descent in the male line of Alpin, King of the Scots. The 
ancient account of the Scotch which the}' give of this descent in the male 
line from Ere mac Ethach Muinreamhair and from Conair II. is doubtless 
the one which was intended to be given, as that which indicates the chan- 
nel of the descent ; and as to whether this channel has sometimes hitherto 
4— d 



50 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

been made to overflow its banks by an inflated list or in parts to run dry 
by a name being left out is a matter which reason would pronounce as of 
only secondary importance. 

In regard to the list I give, I may explain that the Clan Duff, which 
embraces it from Eochaidh Muinreamhar to Lughaidh mac Gilla Comgan, 
these two inclusive, we have from the Books of Ballymote, Lecan and 
Leinster and from the Gaelic authorities in the Advocate's Library, 
Edinburg. 

From Eochaidh Muinreamhar to Conair II., these two inclusive, the list 
which appears in the Book of Lecan I have compared and revised by the 
Scotch list. As to the list from Conair II. to Conair 1st, I compare and re- 
vise the Irish list by the Scotch. As to the number of links in this space 
I find O 'Flaherty to be correct, where he calls Conair II. "great-great 
grandson of Conair 1st," that is judging from the chronology and the his- 
tory of Fordun for this space. I have alsO'found it to be correct by a 
collateral evidence, even if it should be a matter of surprise to any one 
that in the process of my investigation into this subject I may be found 
to have identified our Conair II., so-called, with the so-called monarch 
Mac Conn. With the genealogy given of him in Keating and O 'Flaherty, 
our list will be found to agree as to numbers, from Conair II. to and in- 
cluding Ilugony mor. If, as would appear to be the case, the two lists rep- 
resent the same Hue of men for this space, all that is to be said about it is 
that some of the families descended from this stem may in the later ages 
have taken the liberty of giving to the names such forms as they judged 
the changes of the language, even in the pre-Christian ages justified. 
There are usually reckoned about 33V3 years for an average length of 
generation, that is, on the average three successive generations to a cen- 
tury ; but in the British Isles I think the average length of human life may 
be longer than in most other nations and one may perhaps reckon 34 or 
35 years as the average length of a generation. Now, Fergus, the son of 
Ere, died in 420 A. D. , and back of him there are 34 generations, which 
multiplied by 34 equals 736 B. C. for the time of the 75th. (34 gen- 
erations multiplied by 34 years for each equals 1,156, diminished by 420 
years after the Christian era, leaves 736 B. C.) 

"According to the Irish history," says Valiancy, " thi3 colony (i.e., 
the Gaedalian), arrived here in 3260 A. M., that is, in 738 B. C. The 
Liber Lecan says this happened in the reign of Belesis, who is Nabonassar, 
and his era began in 747 B. C, and he died in 714 B. C." He was suc- 
ceeded by his son Nabocollassar, that is, by the great Nebuchadnezzar of 
Scripture. The Irish annalists may be right and there is great reason to 
think that this is the first colony that settled in Ireland, and that the great 
Milesian expedition was in the time of Nebuchadnezzar." 

Now, although I think it uncalled for in me to extend my list in the 
main line in the British Isles beyond Hugony, I yet consider it quite non- 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 51 

sensical in Valiancy to say that this was probably the first colony which 
settled in Ireland ; for there were doubtless colonies of different stocks 
and some of the same stock as this which settled in it previously. Even 
the Liber Lecan confirms this, which in one place says that the Milesians 
invaded Ireland in the year of the world 2736, which if this date were 
correct would have been 1264 B. C. Vol. II., p. 1., O'Halloran's His- 
tory of Ireland. 

Valiancy continues: " The Reim Roighree or Book of Kings places 
their (i.e., the Firbolgs) arrival in Ireland, in 32G6 A. M., but the Lib:r 
Lecan says some of them came in the reign of Ballaster, that king who 
saw the handwriting on the wall, and from whom Cyrus, son of Darius, took 
Babylon ; and that they landed in the northwest of Connaught, at a place 
called Inbher Domhnan, from these Fir D'Omnan or men of Oman." 
Vail. Coll. de Reb. Hib. Vol. IV. p. 139. This would leave the time of 
this invasion to have been 734 B. C. 

In the preface to page XII of this same volume, this author says: " I 
showed the mistake of Keating and the bards he had copied from in mak- 
ing the Firbolg and the Tuatha de Danaan colonies. They were only the 
names of the different orders of priests that arrived with the colonies."* 
But Valiancy must certainly have known that the Firbolg were not only 
the priests that accompanied the expedition of the Milesians, but the 



* "An old author says the Firbolg came to Ireland when Ballaster (Baalstassar) was king, 
he, who saw the magic handwriting, the words Mane, Tethel, Phareas, and, he proceeds* 
Gyrus eon of Darius soon after took Babylon." 

"Mow, Firbolg signifies Augurs, Fir, a man, bolg of letters, learning and erudition. Fear* 
bolg i.e., mailineacha or mailachane, vet, gloss. Mr, Shaw in his Gaulick Lexicon, thus ex- 
plains mailachan, viz. ■ 'the young of sprites in Scotland called Browny.it is a good-natured 
being and renders good offices to favorites.' Thus, the Rev. Mr. Shaw." 

"Arab, baligh, reaching the highest perfection in learning. Pers, belagh, any vocable im- 
plying excellence as purity, virtue. Belaghet, eloquence, fluency of words. Belegh, eloquent, 
(Richardson)." "In the Sclavonian dialect bios? is an interpreter, a lexicon." " But Cas- 
tellns proves that the Chaldees had an order of priests named Belgae ab hoc, ordo ille sacerdo- 
talis, cujus observatores Belgitae dicti; and the ancient Irish glossarists fully explains our 
Firbolg wer? in holy orders, viz. : Bolgceard, i.e., Neas; that is, the profession of a Bolg is 
Neils, i.e., divination, in Heb. Naash." 

" in another ancient glossary I find bolg or builg explained by druchd run, that is, the mys- 
tery of the dead, or of raisingup the dead, by which I understand conversing with the Manes." 

"So that the Irish fir-bolg means no more than the Augurs or Druids, the Dadanau left behind 
when they journeyed to Pelasgian Greece, to improve themselves in some new doctrine then 
broached, and such masters of the magic art were they now become, the poet tells us, that on 
their return they threw a cloud over the firbolg for three days and nights, till they had made 
good footing on the shore. The meaning of the whole is that the Druids not approving of the 
new doctrine brought in by the D.idananai opposed thein, and, we are told that in the space of 
twenty-seven years, they had two noted battles, one at Magh Tuire-deas, and another at 
Mugh-Tuire-Tuagh; that is at the plains of the South tower and of the north tower; but at 
length they got the better of the Firbolg." The translator and fabulous interpolator of 
Kealing's History of Ireland has brought our Dadananai from Greece to Denmark and .Norway, 
and made them instructors of the young Danes in the magick art. I have carefully perused 
Keating in the original Irish, and the ancient poem on which he forma that part of his history, 
where I find not a syllable of Danes or Norwegians, but a plain description of Etrusca, etc." 
Vol. III. Vail, civ, cv, cvi. — The Spear of Lughaidh, the Tuatha de Danan, was called Gai 
Builg the Sorcerer's Spear. 



52 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

great body of those Milesians or Scots themselves under an old name by 
which they used to be known. The author of the Recherches sur I'oriyine et 
le progres des Acts cle laOrece observes: "that the name Scolati (i.e. Celts) 
is anterior to that of Scythai and that of Sacae must have preceded that 
of Scolati, since the prince that bore it was born of the Sacae. The name 
of this people so ancient, has never been changed, or at least, has re- 
ceived so little variation as to be discovered, not only in China and Japan, 
but also in every country they originally inhabited. The Usbeck Tartars, 
a division of the Mongols call themselves Zagais ; and their country of which 
Samarcande is the capital, is called Zagathaia, or Zagaia, which is the same 
as Sacaia." In connection with this I may add, that the learned Prof. 
Bayer observes that the word Scythae was unknown to the most ancient 
Greek writers and that it is not of Grecian origin ; and, he adds, it was 
not the name the Scythians called themselves. He discovers that they 
called themselves Bolgi, anteriorly to their being known by the name of 
Scuthai ; Bolgi means Hidemen, because their vessels were made of hides 
(See Keating's Hist., p 129; Bolg, a leather vessel, bag, etc.), and the 
Greeks consequently called them Skuthai, i.e., Hidemen Coriarii. It was not, 
however, from the idea of the hides, strictly speaking, that those people 
got the name of Scuthai, but from this name Scoth, Sgoth or Scuth, that 
is, small branches interwoven (Arabice Sachut,Virgas) into the form of a 
skiff or ship ; the name being applied to the wicker-work from their use. 
With these primitive boats, whose frame was made of wicker -work, and 
this covered over with ox and buffalo skins, they were accustomed to 
navigate the Caspian and Euxine Seas, and then ventured with them on to 
the ocean and transmigrated to distant countries. You can here also call 
to mind the Scripture term Succath, that is, booths or shielings constructed 
out of the boughs of trees plaited or woven together into a kind of house. 
This is also a Scuth or a Buth. Although the terms Bolg and Scuth came 
to be used for each other they were to each other primitively, strictly 
speaking, as the frame or roof proper of a house is to the thatch or 
shingling. When these Bolgi had mixed with the Dedanites and had traded 
to Babylon, they then took on them the name of Scothi or Scuthi ; 
the Chaldean name for a ship ; and by this name they were known on 
the Red Sea, where they sailed the Egyptaiu ships. Hence, some think, 
arose the Allegory that their chief, Milesius, was married to Scota, a 
daughter of Pharaoh ; as Erythrus or Hercules was said to be married 
to Erytha, i.e., a ship. In such manner we shall find Niul was married 
to the Skeita or fleet of the Egyptains,* at the time Moses was conduct- 
ing the Israelites out of Egypt. 



* The Greek word corresponding to Bolgi is trxuOat i.e., Coriarii, Hldeman, whence 
Stephanus Justly derives the name Scythae and axodoTttikis Coriarii Urbs, the city ot the 
Hidemen, i.e., Scythopolis. Scythian and Irish Scuth, Scudn, a ship ; Egyptian Sceitha, An- 
glo-Saxon Sceith, a ship made of hides, etc. 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 53 

In a very ancient Manuscript of the Seabright collection is the passage 
of which the following is the translation from the Irish : " The Fomhar- 
aigh " {i.e. Seamen, the ancestors of the Norwegian Pirates) " came to 
Ireland and imposed very heavy taxes upon the inhabitants, viz., two 
thirds of the produce of the soil, of their kine and their children for slaves ; 
and moreover one ounce of gold annually on every head. But Luch- 
Lamhfhada arrived for the help of the Irish ; he came from the land of 
Croton, i.e., Emania Felix (lit. Emania of the Apples) in the country 
of Tairge (Tarcon) ; and with him came certain youthful sorcerers, called 
Tuatha Dadanan, who had the power of metamorphosing stones and trees 
into fighting men." etc. Id. p. xiii. 

Keating supposed the Tuatha de Danaan, Ferbolgs, etc., to have been 
different as to nationality from each other and from the Scots. They 
were, however, all the same at the start; only the progress of ages made 
aperceptible differentiation in the characters of those people, say not only 
in North Britain and Erin, but in the provinces of Erin itself. Referring 
to the Tuatha de Danan, he sa3's, " It was this nation that vanquished the 
Fomorians in the battle of North Magh Turedh and which had previously 
vanquished the Ferbolgs in the battle of South Magh Turedh." Lughaidh 
Lamhfhada or the Longhanded is in the tale said to have been a son of a 
danghter of the king of the Fomharaigh and to have killed his grandfather, 
in the battle of North Magh Turedh by a stone he threw at him from a 
sling. In this battle, also, Kethlen. the wife of Balor, is said to have 
fought with cool and determined valor and to nave succeeded in wounding 
the Daghda, i.e. the chief priest of the Danaans. Nuadhat Argiod Lamh, 
i.e., Nuadhat with the Silver hand and several other Dmaans of promi- 
nence were laid hors du combat on that hard fought field. 

But notwithstanding the interweaving of some such fiction in the narra- 
tive, the two battles here spoken of would appear to have been of a real 
nature, the opposing forces being respectively the Fomhorian invaders and 
the native defenders The field of South Magh Turedh is said to have 
been in the county of Mayo and that of North Magh Turedh in the County 
of Sligo; while Beauford has them respectively in Galway and Roscommon. 
" Forohoraigh Afric," says Valiancy, "is a general name in Irish his- 
tory for the Carthaginians, the name signifying Marine Heroes, Princes," 
etc. ; but here I take the name to imply that body of Persians, who, ac- 
cording to the Punic Annals given us by Sallust, did not quit Africa with 
the great body of the Nemedians, but settled towards the ocean. These 
people would naturally endeavour to share the benefits of the lucrative 
trade carried on by the colony settled at Gadiz, and being as expert mar- 
iners as their brethern, would endeavor also to pursue them to the British 
isles, wherein a lucrative trade had been established by the Spanish colonies. 
This conjecture corresponds with the subjoined account, which is from 
Major Tisdal, who received it, on his part, from Capt. Logie, the English 
consul at Morocco about anno 1780. 



54 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

" An MSS. of very ancient date is now in the possession of the emperor 
of Morocco, describing the people of the province of Soudan and South 
Barbary. Their features, complexion and language differ totally from 
those of any other people on this continent. Although this MSS. is old its 
description corresponds exactly with that of the present inhabitants of that 
country. It relates that a part of that people, being once oppressed by 
their prince, crossed the Mediterranean into Spain ; from thence they 
traveled north and found means to provide vessels from those shores, in 
which they embarked and lauded in a mountainous part of some of the 
British isles. At this present the people of Soudan always speak their own 
language, unless in their intercourse with the Moors, and this language 
has a great affinity with the Irish and Welsh dialect. 

"They are red haired, freckled and in all respects a stronger bodied 
and more enterprising people than the Moors. Their language is called 
Shiloagh; they wear a checked, woolen covering, put on in the same 
manner as the Highlanders usually wear the kilt. 

" They are the greatest travelers and most daring people of the Morocco 
dominions and conduct all the caravans." Vail. Coll. de Eeb. Hib. Vol. IV. 

The Irish history states that their ancestors for nine successive genera- 
tions had their abode in a country called by them variously Gothia, Guthia, 
and Gaethluigh, Latin, Gaetulia, situated on the African side of the Med- 
iterranean, not far from the Carthaginian's possessions on the one side, 
nor from Crete, Sicily, Italy and the coast of Spain on the other. M3' 
understanding is, however, that those from whom sprung their line of an- 
cestors did not live in Gaetulia during those nine successive generations, 
but during that interval, were born and lived in different countries, called 
European and Asiatic, situated upon the Mediterranean in Europe in Asia 
or elsewhere. The names they give in nineteen successive places, that is 
between Breogan and Phenius Pharsaidh, do not all represent the 
names those men were called by, whether or not they fairly represent the 
number of generations, at least back to Gaedhal or Niul. 

From Fenius Farsaidh, or the Persian, came Niul, who was the first of 
the race they say, who settled in Egypt, and which name some have very 
ingeniously supposed to represent a race, say some Egyptian dynasty, 
whether of the Shepherd kings or others; just as they suppose Fenius, 
his father, to have represented the Persian — Phoenician* race; and 



* Of the Phoenicians Herodotus says: " This nation, according to their own account, dwelt 
anciently upon the Erythraean Sea, but crossing thence fixed themselves on the sea coast of 
Syria, where they still inhabit. This part of Syria and all the region extending from hence to 
Egypt is known by the name of Palestine." Rawlinson's Herod. Bk. VII. 89. 

Phoenius was according to Sanchoniatho, son of Chna, i.e. Chanaan ; " a bold etymologist," 
eays Rawlinson, " might add that Phoenix is a mere translation of Chna, which is the name <>r 
the red dye so admired by the Orientals." (Id. Appendix pp. 33S-9. See note 1 ou Bk. II. p. 49, 
as to the settlement of Phoenicians in Baeotia.) But Phoenius represented a man and a race, 
the Phoenician. The Gaedhalians must have been understood as offsprings of the Phoenicians, 
consequently the same by propagation. In the Hebrew and Phoenician, Gaedel means great 
applying to largeness also, as Gaedel Mare the ' Great sea,' the Mediteranean. 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 55 

Gaedel, his supposed son, to have represented the Gaedalic race, the 
race bordering upon the Great or Gaedalic or Mediterranian Sea. 

" Keating, MacCurtin and the MacFirbeshes, authors of the Liber 
Lecanus, all conflrm the arrival of the Fomharaigh in Ireland at several 
periods ; that they introduced the art of building with stone and lime, 
the science of astronomy, etc., that they adored certain stars which 
they supposed to have power from the god of the sea, either to guide or 
mislead the ships ; that at length they overran the country, and made a 
complete conquest, drove out the Nemedians and laid the country under 
tribute." " Spencer allows that the Irish received letters from the 
Phoenicians and asserts that a colony of Africans {i.e. of the Carthiginiau 
kind) settled in the western part of Ireland." Vail. Coll. II., 252. 

These people, before their advent to Ireland, appear to have had settle- 
ments all round in the vicinity of the Mediterranean, for we have seen that 
Luigh Lamhfliada came with his host of Tuath Dadanan sorcerers to the 
assistance of the Irish from the harbor of Croton in Italy. 

' The country about Croton was called Maeoni or Eamonia ; there was 
also the city of Eamonia, the vica Maeoni and the planum Maeoni in 
Etruria. Now, as there was Eamonia in the inland parts and Eamonia on 
the sea coast, in which stood Croton, our Irish historian most properly 
distinguishes Croton to be the maratime Croton or Maeonia, ' Croton na 
Cuan,' that is, ' of the harbors.' Dionysius of Haliearnassus mentions the 
change of name into Cothornia, and the Cruthni or Picti of Ulster were, 
according to Colgan, called Cetherni." Vail. Coll. IV., Preface, xiv. 

''Herodotus places the Pactyae and Crethoti in Thracia — Chersonesus- 
Thrace, Samos and Crete had been peopled by Phoenicians, Pelasgians 
and Etruscans." "To this let us add that the first Etruscan king after 
the fabulous time of the E)truscans was Melcus, rex Etruscarum totae 
Italiae imperavit. He consequently was the leader of the Pelasgian colony 
to Spina and afterwards to Spain, where Herodotus finds him under the 
name of Melesi-genes and thinks it was Homer." Vail. Coll. IV., Pref. vi. 

Herodotus, in representing his ' Miledh of Spain ' to have been a con- 
temporary of Homer (of course he was too sensible a man to think him to 
have been Homer himself) has doubtless hit upon the ' Miledh of Spain ' 
of the Irish history, as the chronology of Homer would, perhaps, exactly 
fit into the time of Ith or his father. In regard to the local name, Aernonia 
or Maeonia, as connected with Croton in Italy, Valiancy considers the 
name Ereamhon to mean 'an Aemonian chieftain,' seemingly compounded 
of Er, great, noble, a chieftain, and Eamoin or Eamonia or Aemhoin. 
'I think,' says he, 'the name points out the origin of the Pelasgian Irish 
from Eamonia, or, as they write the name, Eamhain." 

Speaking^ in reference to various historic evidences he again says: 
"This shows the origin of the Irish history, and although I believe that 
part of the Irish records not to be true in every particular of the detail, 



56 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

still there is good authority to say that such a colony did arrive from 
Spain." — "In short, the history of the ancient Pelasgi and Etrusci is the 
same as that of the ancient Irish." — Id. 

Again : — " But a stronger evidence of the arrival of this colony cannoj 
be given than the name of Aemhain or Eamhain, that was given to the 
capital and royal residence in Ulster: Cruthni to the country and people 
of Dalriada : Aemhain to Inch Colum Cille on the coast of Scotland ; and 
of Aemhain, Eubonea, and Euboea to the isle of Mann." — Id. 

At the founding of the city of Emhain, in the reign of Ilugony, Tier- 
nach of Cluanmac Noise commences his Annals, with the statement that 
' all the historic records of the Scots preceding the time of Kimbaeth are 
uncertain.' The coming of the Picts to Ireland under their King Gud in 
the time of Eremon, as according to the Irish Annals, must not be un- 
derstood in the literal way it would appear to bear ; for the people called 
the Ciuthni or Picti were evidently the same people as the Scots, which is 
proved by the identity of the Gaelic with the language spoken by the 
Picts in the seventh century. In the course of the ages the dialects of 
North Britain and Erin differentiated by use, but not so much as might be 
expected ; for St. Colum was able to preach to the Picts in his own native 
tongue, without the aid of an interpreter. There is only one instance re- 
corded by Adamnan in his life of St. Colum, in which we can suspect the 
aid of an interpreter had to be called in, and in that instance it is likely 
the old Pictish chief may have had peculiarities, one of which miglit have 
been that lie could hear but imperfectly. In his Celtic Scotland Mr. Skene 
also proves the identity as to origin and language of those two peoples 
from the ancient topographical nomenclature of North Britain and Ireland. 

If the name Eremhon would mean Western people, as according to 
Beauford, an interpretation, which is doubtless easily explainable, it would, 
as we have seem, also mean the chieftain of Ewania, while the man's name 
by which he was known in his day might have been of some other form 
than Ereamhon. However, I would regard it as not at all unlikely thafc 
Eremhon was the proper name of a man after which in future times his 
race was designated Heremonians and that he may have lived in a later 
praeChristian age than that which has been assigned to Heremon by the 
Irish historians. The antiquity of that Heremon, whose name appears 
away back in the line of ' MacConn,' might be deemed what is called 
respectable : viz., Conair mor, A. D. 1, or say, B. C. 50 years. Then 12 
generations back from him to and including Heremon in the line of ' Mac- 
Conn's' ancestors makes 433 years. (33$ X 12 = 400 + 33 = 433.) 
After that there are 9 generations in that list, which represents at the same 
computation 300 years ; for 33$ X 9 equals 300 ; and 300 added to 430 
equals 730 B. C. 

But we must keep in mind that the praeChristian dates are comparatively 
uncertain and this in regard to all the historic nations. In Rawlinson's 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 57 

" Great Monarchies," as well as other such ancient historic works, the 
dates preceding the Greek empire in Asia can be only regarded as generally 
approximative to correctness. That the Irish records leave a wide field for 
speculation as to the true dates for the founding of their Milesian king- 
dom the following data together with what I have given will show. Philip 
O'Sullivan in his work dedicated to the King of Spain, says that they 
arrived in Ireland 1342 years B. C, which up to his (O'SuIlivan's) time,. 
1627 A. D., makes 2969 years. See " O' Donovan's 4 Masters." The 
Irish historian, bishop and prince, namely, Cormac MacCulinan, the com- 
piler of the Psalter of Cashel in the 9th century, A. D., as well as the 
Book of Conquests states that the Gaels arrived in Ireland about 1300 years 
B. C. The Polj'chronicou agrees with them in this computation in stat- 
ing: "There are about 1800 years from the arrival of the Hibernenses 
until the death of St. Patrick, which is the same as to say that they arrived 
in Ireland over 1300 years B. C. The Book of Conquests asserts that 
" it was at the end of 283 years from the ' Exodus ' that the Scots arrived 
in Ireland ; " which, if the incoming of the Scots was in the early part of 
the fourteenth century, would leave the exodus to have taken place some- 
time in the sixteenth century B. C. It is difficult to divine the reason that 
during the prevalence of state Christianity, the tendency of fashion has 
been to abolish all antiquity — either there was no praeChristian world or 
if men then lived they were all fools! Away with such squeamishness as 
is prepared to say that every human fossil, which comes to sight, must 
needs have pertained to some Ind : an, the evident and general characteris- 
tic of fickle imitators, the mistaken object of whose life seems to be to 
please somebody or something at the expense of principle, of manhood, of 
womanhood. 

If, however, the Irish records go to show that there may have been an 
invasion of the country or that a foreign colony settled in it at about 
the time indicated, they do also go to show, as evinced before from thr> 
Book of Lecan and from what follows, drawn from the same source and 
others, that there were other colonies which settled in the country or other 
invasions of it much later than the time above set down, that is, than the 
fourteenth century B. C. 

"The Book of Lecan, fol. 13, says that some of the Tuatha Dadan came 
to Ireland in the first year of Cambaoth, i.e., Carnbyses, son of Cir, 
i.e., Cyrus; and that some of the Milesians came in the 5th year of Alex- 
ander's reign, that Alexander that fought Daire Mor ; that is, Darius, the 
Great ; and that these Milesians brought with them an account of the di- 
visions of Alexander's army among his generals. Others came to Ireland 
in the very year in which Alexander defeated DaireMor." Vail. Coll. IV. 
322 n >te. 

When Nebuchadnezzar II., the king of Babylon, besieged Tyre in 586 
B. C, the governor of that city at the time was Ith or Eth-baal. The 



58 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

city held out for 13 years, and when it was taken in 573 the people had 
left for Spain an 1 for the islands of the Mediterranean. 'When, however, 
Nebuchadnezzar ha I set everything in order in the regime of his govern- 
ment and had prepared a fleet he embarked a large army and followed the 
exiled Phoenicians into Spain, where, it is said, he remained 13 years, until 
there was not a Phoenician left in that country. It is thought by some 
ctable authors that the Ith here mentioned was that one who invaded 
id and settled his people therein ; for that this would, in his emer- 
gency, have been most likely to have been the country he would have 
selected as a permanent and quiet home for his people, out of the reach of 
Nebuchadnezzar or any other ambitions conqueror, who might arise in the 
east. But this is their conjecture, no one having spoken definitely with 
respect to it. Supposi ever, for the sake of illustration, this to 

have been the man of that name, who established the colony in Ireland, 
then he must have been well advanced in years, having his grandchildren 
grown up around him. when he left Tyre for the west: for. according to 
our reckoning of three generations, on the average, for a century he would 
have been in mid life about the y 1 il. C. But reckoning the average 
length of the generation back from the Chiistian era in the line of ' Mae 
Conn ' to have been 30 years instead of 33^. this man would have been in 
the prime of life about the year 000 B. C. : or. at 29 years for the average 
length of the generation for the same period, he would have been in the 
prime of life about 5S0 B. C. 

••We only learn from Berosus.*' says Valiancy, ''that Nabocollassar 
(or Gudarz. i.e.. Nebuchadnezzar 1st.), whose reign emmenced in 626 
B. C was master of Egypt, Palestine. Phoenicia, and Caelo- Syria." It is 
seen that the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon are not included in this 
list of conouests. and consequently Nebuchadnezzar II., on coming to 
the thron , set s rut earnestly the capture of those cities. Referring to 
this whole period of the Nebuchadnezzars. Valiancy says: — 

••At this period I am of opinion the great Milesian expedition as it is 
called, took place from Spain to Ireland ; other parties would naturally 
follow, when N icha ";nezzar II. reached Spain, where, it is said he did 
not leave one Phoenician in the whole kingdom, spending no less than nine 
years in driving them out." "Again: As our Scythians mixed with the 
Tyiians and became one people and shared their fate there is great r - n 
::ik that this is the first colony that settled in Ireland, and that the 
great Milesian expedition took place in the time of Nebuchadnezzar." 

•• There is a great reason to think our Ith {i.e.. that one of the name 
who invaded Ireland) was the Ith-baal or Eth-baal of the Scriptures, i".e., 
Dominus Ith." Vail. Coll. vol. iv. 

An expression of the history of Hugouv mor as given in the four Mas- 
ters is translated literally as follows : 'After Ugain mor had been king of 
Eheann and of the west of the west for forty years he was slain by 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 59 

Badhbhehadh ; " winch is translated as follows by the Irish historians : 
"After Hugony, the Great, had reigned forty years over Ireland and the 
western isles of Europe, he was slain," etc. Valiancy takes Eireann 
here to mean not Ireland. I>ut Iran in Persia, and the expression the 
' west of the west ' to mean that Hugony and his people were still situ- 
ated to the east of the Mediterranean. Iu fact he, with many others, 
maintain that all the names iu the so called Irish historic list not only pre- 
ceding Hugony's, but for some space of the list after that, are merely 
transferred from Iran or Eireann in Asia to the isle of the west and that 
what is said of them is merely what had happened to the real men in Asia. 
They go on, too, and give such historical and philological illustration of 
their position ou this subject as they consider makes their assumption 
amount at least to probability, which suppose it does and more. Yet, on 
the other hand, it is replied that, with respect merely to the genealogical 
bearing of the subject, if the names appearing in the Irish lists represent 
real men and in the relation of son to father right along as they are repre- 
sented in the lists to have been, then it makes no difference, at least con- 
sidered in this relation, whether they lived to the east or to the west of 
the Mediterranean in their day, provided they were the ancestors of those 
who claim them as such. In the PraeChristian as well as in the Christian 
ages men used their privilege of changing occasionally their local habita- 
tions ; and of sometimes, doubtless oftener than was necessary, making 
a new habitation for themselves and their families by force of arms. It 
is, therefore, seen from this that aman whose name appears in a genealog- 
ical list as an ancestor might be of a country far distant and a language 
much different from that <>f his grandfather or grandson, whose name may 
appear in its proper place in the same list. But, really, if this assumption 
of Valiancy and that class of men referred to as being of his opinion lie 
correct, namely, that at the time of Hugony mor the Gaels were yet set- 
tled to the eastward of , on the borders of and in the islands of the Medi- 
terranean, then it might be thought difficult for us 'to go to work in the 
list which contains the names of Ughain and his ancestors and descend- 
ants and pick out the name of the man who was the leader of that expedi- 
tion into Ireland. We see, however, that the investigators incline to the 
name Ith or Ethbaal in their idea of the leadership of that expedition and 
consequently we have to look for the Gaelic list which contains in its first 
place or in effect in its first place the name Ith. This list we recognize in 
the genealogy given of MacConn, king of Ireland, which list we recog- 
nize as the main line of the ancient Irish monarchy. Whether or not then 
we are to recognize in Ith the leader of an invasion of the country, my 
understanding is there must have been an invasion of it about in his time. 
I would not be disposed to refer to Ireland the story related of Labhradh 
Longsech, as from criticisms I have seen on it I would think that story 
might be justly referrable to the Eastern Eireann, i.e., in Persia: But 



60 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

allow me to suggest the tenth name in the list, namely, Eramhan or Olild 
Eton, as a native of the country, who by meaus of the forces at his com- 
mand within the country and drawn from his own territories in North 
Britain, took possession of the government of the island which remained 
in the hands of his descendants (if we are not to except the few kings 
of the house of Rudhri?) down to the last half of the twelfth century 
A. D. 

Some historians have represented this conquest, such as it was, by Olild 
Erawn, to have been that of the Tuatha da Danan, as they make that of 
his ninth ancestor to have been the conquest of the country by the Fir- 
bolgs ; but this is, in a sense, a multiplication of words without the neces- 
sary explanation being given for the conveyance of the proper knowledge : 
for they were the same people, namely, what they called Milesians or 
Scots ; but in the progress of six generations a large body of them appear 
to have changed their religion from the tenets of the Firbolg sect to those 
of the Tuatha De Danans and to have become hostile towards each other 
on this account: And so we find that it is not alone in the Christian times 
that religious differences have existed in Ireland. 

Some of the authorities make Ith to have been grandson of Bratha and 
others grandson of Milesius, which is supposed to be because this Bratha 
was the leader (Miledh) of their Gaelic expedition from Gaethluigh into 
Spain. The historians, however, represent their Ith as the first of their 
men who went into Ireland ; for that as being a very intelligent man and 
well versed in the languages they had sent him before them to make ob- 
servations of the country and learn what he could of it, for their informa- 
tion, before they had set out from Spain on their expedition. It is, 
therefore, not unreasonable on the whole to conclude that a Milesian ex- 
pedition may have taken place into Erin in the time of Ith, although such 
expedition may not now have attempted a conquest of the country by force, 
nor may they have found it necessary to attempt such a thing by reason of 
the friendly reception they met with from the natives and the existing 
authorities. 

Now, I suppose the list given us of the ancestors of king MacConn to 
contain all the links which properly belong to it, I mean intermediately of 
Lughaidh Mac Conn and Ith ; and that it does so I regard as proved to a 
nicety by the parallel list of the royal line, so called, of Leinster, that is, 
supposing ourUghain to be only another name for Ith. And this being so 
it is evident that this list measures to a close approximation by means of 
the number of its generations the length of time which has passed since 
the Scots made their celebrated invasion of Ireland. 

In regard to the expedition of King Nebuchadnezzar II. into Spain the 
very learned Count Gebelin observes that ' many learned men had doubted 
of this expedition, particularly Bochart, who, for reasons not worthy of 
himself, treats it as a fable.' He then shows that the Phoenicians had the 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 61 

use of the compass and navigated to the Western Ocean, and finally he 
combats the opponents of this part of the history and proves the criticisms 
of Bochart to be full of errors. 

Referring to this juncture of the histoiy Valiancy says: " The vanity of 
the ancient Irish Sennachies had formed this connection between their an- 
cestor and the heroic governor of Tyre. The Liber Leean flatly contra- 
dicts this genealogy. At folio 1 19 it says : " The race of Ith were neither 
Milesians, Domnans, Bolgai nor Nemedians, but far superior to all these, 
i.e., they were Fomaraigh. Mac Conn descended from Ith and extended 
his arms to the British Isles and to Gaul." Now, if any ancient Irish his- 
torians meant to say that their Ithians were descended from Ith, the gov- 
ernor of Tyre, I do not see how this account of the Book of Lecan can 
contradict it as said by Valiancy. In fact, common sense shows that the 
Tyrians were compelled by the circumstances of their case, when deprived 
of their own homes by Nebuchadnezzar II., to become for the time Fom- 
araigh and either by persuasion or force obtain a home for their people. 
Now, where would the Tyrians, a sea-faring people, having at their com- 
mand at the time an abundance of sea craft and wealth, have been likely 
to have gone with their wealth and their families? Not into the center of 
Africa, wherein they would be likely to have to abandon or partially aban- 
don f l>eir ships on the coast; no, but they would be likely to have abode 
for a tune on some islands and coasts of the Mediterranean, whence having 
reconnoitered Ireland by agenc}' of some of their competent men and 
judged things there to be generally favorable for their invasion and settle- 
ment they would have gone there and settled down after such arrangement 
as they found necessary as preliminary to such settlement. It would 
seem to me also tnat this account of the the Book of Lecan, which says 
that the descendants of Ith are not Milesians may possibly have been in- 
tended to imply their descent from this Ith, who had been governor of 
Tyre in Phoenicia when that city was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar II. ; 
but as to whether or not this Ith was grandson to the Bratha or 
Milesius, mentioned above, through his son Breogan is something which 
perhaps the authors or compilers of the Book of Lecan did not take 
sufficiently into consideration? In reference to this historic juncture 
Valiancy says: "This strongly marks the intercourse and mixture of 
the Southern Scythians with the Tyrians." Bratha, the grandfather of 
their Ith, was, according to the Irish historians, a celebrated conqueror 
(Miledh, leader), who conducted his expedition "from Guthia near Crete, 
and Sicily, into Spain;" he landed in that portion of the peninsula now 
called Portugall or ' the port of the Galls,' and conquered the province, 
called after him, Bragantia now Braganza in Portugal. His son Breogan 
conquered a large portion of Spain proper; founded the city of Brigantia 
near Coruana and was the ancestor of the celebrated peoples called 



62 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

Brigantes in North anil Smith Britain. Is it then unlikely that the grand- 
son of this Miledh, whatever his proper name was, the son of this Breogan 
as being descended of such renowned warriors, and being himself so brave, 
intelligent and accomplished a person, should have been selected by the 
Tyrians in their emergency as tneir governor to defend them from the 
power of the then all conquering Babylonians, even supposing the govern- 
orship were not understood to have pertained to him by right, say through 
marriage or otherwise? Would not this also be likely to have been the 
man selected by a council entrusted with the public defense and with the 
provision for the public safety and maintenance to send on a mission 
to reconnoiter a country which they had partially concluded would be a 
good country for them to emigrate to or to invade, if necessary ; for a 
home they must provide for their people to go to when forced from their 
own habitations? 

That the Fomaraigh were the actual invaders of Ireland in what is vari- 
ously called the Gadelian, Milesian and Scottic expedition there can 
be no doubt, that is, that the Gaels, Milesians or Scots were the same 
people they called the Fomaraigh, notwithstanding O' Flaherty might be 
thought by his language to imply the Fomaraigh to have been aboriginals 
and those he calls Scots or Gaels or Milesians to have been a different race 
of people and the invaders. 

" The Fomaraigh," says he, " the primitive inhabitants of those islands 
were giants." And in speaking of his Milesian invasion he says, " which 
was the fifth from the deluge except the Fomorians or natives." 

But in the same manner the Gadelians were called giants and aborigines. 
"These Gaduli or giants," says Valiancy, "were in possession of the 
Brittainic isles when the Cymmerii or Walsh repossessed themselves of 
Britain, for they were the primitive inhabitants. In commemoration of 
their expulsion of those Gaduli or tall men they annually burnt a giant 
figure of wicker work. From that time the Gaeduli remained inhabiting 
Ireland, Mann and the north of Scotland." Coll. Vol. IV. 

In his Ogygia, vol. I, p. 7, O' Flaherty has as follows: "The first ad- 
venturers who arrived in Ireland after the deluge were Partholan and his 
followers. Same write that he found it planted with inhabitants, but they 
came here soon after him. Our historians call them Fomlioraigh or as we 
call them in English Fomorians, which name the antiquarians give to all 
those foreign invaders, who have made descents into Ireland in opposition to 
the first inhabitants ; and they tell us they were all the offsprings of Cham 
from Africa, except the Fomorians or first colonists to whom they assign 
no other settlement or origin than Ireland. 

The Latins have termed such people Aborigines or natives, because their 
origin cannot be traced any higher and the Greeks call them Gigantes or 
giants (j-"?^*"??, earth-born), that is born of the earth, because they came 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 63 

from no other county, but like trees and herbs were first produced from 
the earth by vegetation, of whom Virgil : 

Haec Neraora indigenae Fauni Nymphaeque tenebrant 
Gensque virum truucis et duro robore nata. 

"The native Fauus and Nymphs these groves possessed, 
And a race of men sprung from trunks of trees 
And the stout oak." 

And Juvenal: 

Qui rupto robore nati, 
Compositique luto nullos habuere parentes. 

"Who sprung from the shattered oak 
And formed of clay, no other parents had." 

"Nor indeed," he continues, " does the name import any extraordinary 
stature of body. We read nowhere that men were taller before the deluge 
than they are at present ; there have been men iu all ages of a monstrous 
and gigantic stature, but very few. The long and happy life which the 
patriarchs and men who lived in the infancy of the world were blessed with 
added nothing to their stature. The raven, as is obvious, by many years 
surpasseth a man in length of life ; nor does it necessarily follow that he 
should have as large a body, from whence we may infer that giants iu 
Scripture should not be understood as men of an uncommon magnitude ; but 
are taken as tyrants, and the first inhabitants or natives ; so much for the 
etymology of the word. 

Nemedh, the third in descent from Taith, the brother of Partholan, being 
impelled and actuated by similar motives to fame and glory, was the second 
after the flood that immigrated to this kingdom. The third and fourth 
colonies were the Firbolg and the Tuatlia Dadanan, that is, a people who 
adored and enrolled mother Danan with her three sons as gods. 

Fifthly, the Milesians from Spain succeeded them, a Seottic colony o^ 
Scythian origin, who possessed and governed this nation longer than any 
other invaders." " The chieftains of those four colonies are said to have 
been descended equally alike as the Milesians from the same father 
Magog,- the grandson of Noah by Japhet and to have all spoken the Seottic 
language." 

Now, first, supposing all those different colonies to have spoken, as he has 
said, the same Seottic language, this language from its name is Scythic. It, 
however, could not possibly have been the Scythic of Western, or Northern 
Asia, for, as a matter of fact, we find the Irish to have hardly any percep- 
tible kinship to those languages. Nine out of ten Irish words are, accord- 
ing to Valiancy and the profoundest investigators into this subject, either 
Chaldaic, Arabic, Syriac or Hindostanic ; consequently the Irish is of 



64 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

that class of languages which belongs to the Scythic of Central and South- 
ern Asia. It is the language of the ancient founders of Babylon and Nin- 
eveh, and of those Persians settled in early times on the eastern side of the 
Erythrian Sea towards India and of the Peninsula of Arabia and the Sa- 
baeans towards the straits of Babel Mandeb. By some philologers all this 
class of languages have been called Cushite ; for the word the Persians call 
Cus and also Sus and Cis, as in their name of country Cisiana or Susiana, 
the Chaldaeans and Syrians call Cuth which is the veritable Scuth, Scyth 
and Scot. This race of Souths has been very renowned on the earth and 
may be reasonably supposed in the course of the ages to have had a dyn- 
asty or dynasties of their own on the ancient throne of Egypt, perhaps 
other dynasties besides the Shepherd kings: and they may also be suit- 
posed to have dominated in ancient Ethiopia, especially in its kingdom of 
Meroe, situated among the rivers, the African Mesipotamea, near the 
sources of the Nile? 

To make the distinction between the Northern and Southern Scythians 
as plain as is necessary let us have the following : — 

The Persians sa3 _ that the Tourani or Northern Scythians were so called 
from Tour, a son of Feridoun a King of Persia of the first dynasty, named 
Pish-dadians ; that Tour had an elder brother named Irag, who had Persia 
for his inheritance ; and Tour was obliged to pass the Gihon or Oxus 
and to reign in the Transosane Provinces. Much has been written in this 
strain, but the learned d'Herbelot clearly proves that neither was Turques- 
tan named from Tour nor Iran from Irag, as the Persians fabulously re- 
late. 

The Arabians, Persians and Turks have, however, always distinguished 
the Northern from the Southern Scythians. " By the names Jaguige and 
Maguige, Gog and Magog, says d'Herbelot, they understand the same as 
they do by Gin and Magin or Tchin and Matchin, that is the Northern 
Chinese and Southern Chinese." 

For ages the Southern Scythians or Persians had been at war with the 
Northern Scythians, representing them as demons and always respecting 
them as barbarians. 

"The Persians," says Vallanc}', "were Scythians descended from 
Mount Caucasus ; they first settled about the Caspian Sea ; then in 
Armenia and finally in Persia. The ancient history of the Persians is the 
history of those Southern Scythians, the ancestors of the Irish." 

Iran i.e., Persia. Iran and Tour an, i.e., Southern and Northern Scythia. 

If, then, we suppose the people of any of those invasions of Ireland, 
above enumerated, to have come into the country speaking a language 
different from that spoken by the great body of the inhabitants, are we 
to suppose them to have adopted the language of the country or to have 
imposed their own upon it? 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 65 

As to the Fomorians a person would be apt to think O'Flaherty not 
quite consistent in his narrative ; for he now appears to call them the first in- 
habitants or aborigines and then says ' they came soon after the first inhabit- 
ants.' He then goes back again and implies them to have been aborigines ; 
I suppose fearing from the start that if he fell completely in with the idea 
that his Scots, Milesians or Gaels were the Fomorians he would have fallen 
into the trap of those who had fixed the descent of the Fomorians from 
Cham or Sham instead of Japheth Gadul (as this last is written in the old 
MSS.),the son of Noah. He may not possibly have been actuated by 
this thought, but he seems to have beaten round the business a good deal, 
perhaps in a way quite natural to him. 

Gadul means a merchant, Cauaanite, etc., and the Fomoraigh were emi- 
nently engaged in the sea-faring business. Is it more likely then they 
were descended from Japheth Gadel than from Cham, not because I con- 
sider it of any importance to know which of those names that son of Noah, 
they say was their ancestor, bore, but because the history or tradition of 
the Scots traces back to Japheth and the Fomaraigh were the people he 
has- under his fifth head and whom he calls Scots? 

Some profound ethnological and philological investigators have found 
great difficulty to distinguish among the races the people called Shemites. 
They seemed to me by the tone they adopted before they had finished 
with the subject as if they somehow understood the Cushites and Shemites 
to have been the same people if not the latter to have been, so to speak, 
the genus which included the former, somewhat as a species, and the form 
Shem, anciently pronounced Sham, to have been but a verbal variation of 
Cham? 

It appears now plain from a consideration of the whole mythico-historic 
exhibit that the people called Fomorians were the only people whom the 
Irish histories allow t» have effectually conquered the country at the time 
their great Milesian invasion is said to have taken place ; and consequently 
the Fomorians must have been identical with the Scots. 

Speaking in the Ogygia Vol. II. 194, O'Flaherty says : "I find this Seal, 
the father-in-law of Tuathal (Techtmhar) called king of Fomoir, by which 
I conclude he was king of Finland and that those northern inhabitants (now 
the Danes, Swedes, Iothians, and the people of Finland), were anciently 
known to us by the appellation of Fomaraigh, that is, Fomorians, whom 
we have called Loehlanians, from their piractical depredations, because 
they were remarkable, since the eighth century for their invasions and 
piracies ; and by others they were denominated Normans from their situ- 
ation." 

According to the Book of Lecan their Ith was a Fomhorianand according 
to the general Irish history their Ith was one of the Scottic family which 
conquered the country ; consequently the Scots or Milesians who conquered 
the country in that celebrated Gadelian expedition were Fomhorians. 

5— d 



66 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

The distinction in the Gaelic mind between the Fomhorians who were the 
aborigines of a country and the Fomorians who were the sea rover3 must 
have arisen in the popular mind after Christianity had been introduced or 
after they had come to know from the Bible that there had been a deluge. 
It was then conceived that after that catastrophe had taken place there 
were no aborigines of the race of Adam left in any country and that those 
who in the after ages, came to be deemed the aborigines in contradis- 
tinction to all others must need have themselves arisen from those who had 
been at some time colonists and were of the stock of Noah. These were 
Fomharaigh in a good sense, being however, in the idea, of a rather inferior 
grade to the Scots. But the idea entertained of the Fomharaigh, considered 
as invaders, must have been akin to that afterwards, entertained by the 
inhabitants of the coasts and islands of Great Britain and Ireland of the 
terrible Scandanavian Sea Rovers who for a long course of ages brought 
so much sorrow and destruction to those people. In this sense Fomhar- 
aigh would mean literally ' foes of the sea,' or enemies whom the sea might 
bring to them at any time and unexpectedly. 

If it be a correct opinion that the Scots or Phoenicican3 of the earlier 
ages followed in their sea-faring life for the most part trade and did not 
incline to invasion or conquest unless in very rare cases in which they 
absolutely found they would have to provide homes for their people, and 
as to the early ages to which we refer there appears nothing in the history 
to controvert it, we then might safely decide this ancient Fomhoraic people 
not to have been usually associated in the popular mind with such hatred 
and terror as were the Scandinavians of the Christian ages wont to be 
associated in the minds of the people upon whom they were accustomed 
to prey. 

In the later ages, that is the ages of the Roman empire the ports and 
harbors of the Mediterranean were the rendezvous for swarms of piratical 
craft, which Pompey and other commanders, to the praise of their mem- 
ory should it be said, took pains to clear from the sea, in so far as they 
were able to effect this. 

With reference to the Firbolgs I may say that this Bolg is by an elision 
of an or ean at the end for Bolgean or Belgian and means literally child of 
Baal. Of the great divinity of the ancient Phoenicians Baal was an 
appellation and therefore, Bolgae was for Bolgean or more fully Baal- 
gaethan, i.e., Baal-gotten. Mr. Beauford, in speaking of the ancient 
Milesians, says: "Whence in the most ancient Poems we find them dis- 
tinguished as Siol m Bolgae and Slioght m Bealidh or Slioght Mileadh, 
that is, the race of the worshippers of Baal ; an appellation which as 
universally distinguished the ancient inhabitants of Europe as that of 
Christians doth at present." " But when the Belgae are mentioned in the 
Irish Poems and history in contradistinction to the Milesians they siguif}' 
the Plebeians or herdsmen, from Bol, horned cattle, whence Bolg or 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 67 

Bolga, a herdsman or keeper of horned cattle, by reason that this species 
of animals was dedicated to Baal or Bol." Again: " Miledh Fene signi- 
fies a learned nobleman or druid." He then mentions as equivalents 
Baal, Beal, Beul, Bol, Henl. Ull and Oil. " Ull or the sun, which in this 
dialect was the same as B ai, whence Ullagh, the worshippers of the sun 
and their country Ulladh or Ullin," i.e., Ulster, Vail. Coll. III. 290-2. 

In reference to the form Baal or Bolg, appended to names, Valiancy 
says : ''Baal is only an epithet in the Canaanitish tongue, like Arz in the 
Persian." As Ethbaal or Iihbaal; Gudarz, a proper name of Nebuchad- 
nezzar, etc. 

After Tiernach has begQR his annals with the statement that the father 
of Ughan mor was then reigning, King of ErinatTara and Cimbaeth ('or 
as others wrote Liceus') vras king at Emhain and after stating, without 
specifying any as such, that thirty kings of the Lagenians had dominated 
over Ireland from the time of Labhradh Longsech to that of Cathair mor, 
the next king whom he gives specifically to Ireland is Duach Dalta Deag- 
haidh. He has placed him, too, where he appears to belong, namely, in 
the sixth generation before Conair mor, which is about the seventh before 
the Christian era. After that he lias Eocliaidh Areamh in his proper 
place, namely, about half distance between Duach and Conair mor. 
Eocliaidh Feidhlocli he placed just before the latter and in the old genealo- 
gies he is put down as his brother, whether or not that were so. 

The sum of those whom Tiernach allowed to have been kings of Ireland 
of the race of Labhradh Longsech, down to and including his Cathair mor 
can be counted in the history and among them he appears to have in- 
cluded the few kings of the clan of Ruidhri, which were for this space, as 
if he understood said Ruidhri to have been of male descent from his 
Labhradh Longsech, whom he seems to have thought had introduced a 
dynasty in his person, whose descendants so long held the government of 
the country. 

Before Conn Cead-Cathach Tiernach has seven kings of the Cruthni or 
Picts to have ruled Ireland, which to my mind is the same as to say that 
seven kings of the Scots ruled there. But he seems to have had in his 
mind some variety or class of the Scots ; for those men he refers to 
were of the descent of Olild Aron and Duach Dalta Deagh, although he 
might have thought differently. My main tabulation will show the filiation 
of five of these ; but.the whole seven I take to be, as in his conception : 
Feidhlimidh Rechtmhar, son of Tuathal Techtmhar, son of Fiachaidh 
Findalaidh, son of Feredhach Find Fecthach, son of Crimthan Nia Nair, 
son of Lughaidh Riabh-n-dearg with his grandfather Eochaidh Areamh. 
Whether or not Tiernach knew their male descent they were such Scots 
as the country produced and of a piece with those who had preceded 
them at Tara, of the dominating race which he has referred to. 



68 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

But we are to remember in this case that the name of Cruthni some- 
times became attached to a family in those ages through female descent 
and so should not be properly thought to have interfered with the line 
of the descent as ordinarily thought of. 

Of those sorts of Cruthni we have a remarkable instance given in the 
genealogies in the appendix to Skene's Celtic Scotland. Here we are in- 
formed that through the marriage of Core, King of Munster, who was the 
sixth in male descent fromMogh Nuadhat, to the daughter of Fercdhaeh, 
King of the Picts of Alban, his sons named Carbri Cruthnechan or the Pict 
and Mani Leamhna, when they came of age settled in Alban on their 
mother's inheritance and so became the ancestors of the peoples of the 
Lennox and of Magh Gherghiu, or the Mearns, which afterwards, in the 
general mind, were of course, not distinguishable from the Picts of male 
descent. Another brother of theirs named Cronan, it is said, became 
ancestor of the Cruthni of the kingdom of Emhain. You see, therefore, 
any number of Picts, so called, might have arisen from Pictish mothers, 
and still they be in their father's line real Scots. 

Moreover, Tiernach says that there were thirty kings from Leth Cuind 
from the time of Lughaidh-Kiahb-n-dearg, the grandson of King Achy 
Areamh, which Lughaidh lived about 75 years B. C. to Diarmid, 
the son of Fergus Kerbeol, who died about 566 A. D. For this period, 
coining as it does within the properly historic times, this number can be 
arrived at as correct by a reckoning in the histories. 

O'Flaherty calls Cathair Mor the last of the Lagenian line of kings on 
the throne of Ireland. By this we are to understand him as saying that 
Cathair Mor was the last king of Ireland of the race of Labradh Longsech. 
But I see no reason why the Lagenians should have now taken it into 
their heads to give up to others than their own race the throne of Tara, 
which they had held so long. Considering their past it might be thought 
an act of very remarkable self-denial on their part. He says that of Ca- 
thair' s thirty sons there were only ten who left any descendants after them ! 
In many respects the character of King Cathair resembled that of Ughan 
Mor. The latter had twenty-two sons and three daughters, and amongst 
those 25 children he had Ireland divided into equal parts ! Upon the 
celebrated Will of Cathair Mor Valiancy, and the historical critics used to 
like to comment. I, for my part, have sometimes reflected that our Cathair 
Mor must needs have been as great and as real a monarch of Ireland as 
was our Ughan Mor before him ! Some of the historians make our Cathair 
Mor to have been slain by the Lugenians of Tara; others by Conn Ced 
Cathach. The former are more likely to be correct than the latter ; for 
Cathair Mor did not live in the time of King Conn, but was five genera- 
tions later. They have doubtless, hit their mark better, who have con- 
nected Nuadhat Nect, Cathair' s tenth ancestor, with Conair Mor, the 4th 
ancestor of Conn. 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 69 

And, by the way, if you count up that genealogical list of Cathair Mor, 
from Nuadhat Nect to Ughan Mor, inclusive of those two, you will find it 
to contain just 21 names, the same number contained in the line of Conair 
Mor, from the latter to Ughan Mor, these two inclusive ; and the same 
number exactly in the line of Mac Conn from Ferulni mc Edbolg, corre- 
sponding to Conair Mor, to Itli, these two inclusive. This is quite natural, 
you see, there seeming nothing forced or artificial about it 

Here are landmarks, for example : Conair Mor ; Ferulin ; Nuadhat Nect. 

Now, between Conair Mor and Aengus Tuirmac there is just the same 
number as between Feruliu and Eosamhan in the other column ; and as 
there are between Nuadhat Nect and Fergus Fortamhail in the other. 
Also between these last points mentioned and Ughan Mor there are just 
the same number in each. 

By writing the name of Fiachaidh Findalaidh as Fiachaidh Find, occa- 
sionally giving the genitive for the nominative, as Fiathach Find, some 
early transcribers have availed to make in print, two men out of one, for 
these two varieties of form refer to the same man who was ancestor to 
the historical Dal Fiathach race of Ulster. 

In a foot note to p. 118 of Keating's history of Ireland, put there by the 
translator, we get the geographical limits in Ireland, at least, of s<>ine of 
those tribes of kindred origin of which we have been speaking. It is ai 
follows: " Dal Ariadhe (Daul Arree) was co-extensive with the present 
county of Down; and Dal Riada {i.e., in Ireland), with the present 
county of Antrim. " Whether or not this were so for any age or length of 
time it is seeu the Dal Fiathach race is distinguishable from the Dal 
Araidh and from the Dal Riada. They were, of course, all of kindred 
origin, the Dal Araidh tracing back to Rudliri mor. 

This Ruidhri whose name is seen in the left-hand column of the three I 
gave for illustration and comparison I do not understand to have been 
himself king of Ireland, but he was King of Ulster, or Ewania, and when 
the sovereignty of the island came into the hands of his family in the 
person of his sons that clan held it for several reigns at intervals before 
and after the Christian era. How the Degadians attained to power at the 
time they did in the face of the power of the clan of Ruidhri is perhaps to 
be explained by their superiority at the time in militaiy strength. 

The Ogygia, however, presents an item (II. 149) which perhaps maybe 
taken into account in connection with the circumstances of this case. 
The words are as follows: "Queen Mesibocalla, the granddaughter of 
King Achy Areamh by his daughter Esa and Conchobar, King of Ulster, 
by his son, Cormac Conlingas, was the mother of Conair 1st, monarch 
of Ireland, by King Edarscol." Again: " Edania, the daughter of Eadar, 
lord of Eochraidh, after whom Benn Edair, near Dublin was called, had a 
daughter by King Achy, named Esa, who marrying Cormac Conlingas, 
King of Ulster, had by him Mesibocalla, King Eadarscoll's queen." 



70 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

But the old Saxon Scotch Chronicles say that Caractacus was son to a 
daughter of Metellan, his father beiug named Cadallan, son to Cadall. 
And Mr. Beauford calls Conair mor, son of Trenmor, i.e., son of great 
strength, instead of son to Eadarscol. But since that a comparison of 
Fordun and DeWyntoun's lists with those of the Irish histories evidently 
shows Caractacus and Conair mor to have been identical, those two ac- 
counts, since they represent the same thing, in somewhat different ways, 
must be plainly reconcilable. 

As to Cadall and Cadallan I have explained above in a general way, why 
these forms may have come to have been introduced ; but Caractacus or 
Caratake is not Cathair or Couair any more than Cadallan is Eadarscol or 
Cadall Eoghan. Only back to Cadall, which implies his father's father, 
do the old chronicles take their Caractacus genealogy. But it is in the 
Gaelic we are to look for the explanation of those word-forms and not 
in the Welsh or Cambro-British in which the forms do not appear. 

The Gaelic Cadal (note the d unaspirated in this case) means ' sleep,' 
Cadalan, diminutive of Cadal, a short sleep ' a nap.' Then we have the 
same word with the d aspirated, Cadhal, meaning Cail, cabbage, colewort ; 
and "the same word contracted into Cal, ' sleep,' slumber, Calain, a couch, 
befl ; Call, a house, church, hood, veil. And then old Gaelic Cadall (d 
unaspirated) a battle, Cadallan, a little battle, a skirmish. As applied to 
a man these terms would mean respectively and literally a warrior, com- 
mander, with the diminutive or offspring of the first implied in the second 
case. Sleep would appear to me to be of the same ancient root as slap, 
i.e., Saxon Sleap? And Slap implies battle, war. The root of sleep would 
also imply rest, a place to rest in or sleep ; a lodge, hut, house. 

The commonest word in the Gaelic for battle is Cath and the two forms 
Cathal or Cathmhail and Cathair or Cathfhair, being occasionally trans- 
lated into our name Charles, shows that the}' were understood as equiva- 
lents in meaning, when used as a personal appellation, at least to some 
extent. 

The Gaelic Sgealp (they have the combination Sg usually for Sc) means 
a slap with the palm of the hand, i.e., our word Skelp, a smart stroke, 
then the sound of the blow given, a howl, squall, yell, etc. Sgalan means 
a stage, scaffold, hut. Sgail, a shade, shadow, spectre, ghost; a veil, 
covering, a pretense ; a cloud. 

One of the meanings of Neul or Nial is cloud, i.e., something which ob- 
scures, renders dark, covers. Consequently De Wyntoun's Edarste-Nyl, 
forEadar-Scol, would mean theSteidh-neil or stead-cover, i.e., house cover 
or roof of Eadar ; but as a personal appellation it would mean the ' chief 
man ; ' for Ste or Steid would be here for Saxon Stead, properly the wall, 
gall, inclosure and Nyl would mean the daemh, dome or covering of such 
inclosure. The appellation would also imply in it the idea of intelligence, 
the particle ed (here in the fuller form Edar), meaning wisdom, intelli- 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 71 

gence, knowledge, being the root of our word teach and the first com- 
ponent in the older Edbolg, which we identify with this, in the equivalent 
list of names of our ancestors. 

Although they say the name EadarScol means an interpreter, being, as 
they suppose, from Eadar, interposition and Sgoil a school, whence 
Sfoilear, a Scholar, still I see no good reason why it should not be under- 
stood to have not only this but any of its root meanings also, in which it 
would stand as a historical equivalent for their Cadallan. And then their 
Cadall, Cadhal, Cachal or Coll would have to fit on to Eoghan, as well it 
might, seeing that Eoghan is occasionally spelled Eachal and Eochan 
as well as Cathmhael or Cawill means primitively ' leader.' Or, would 
the name Eadarscol have been assumed or given in this case conse- 
quent upon the man's marriage with the great-granddaughter of Eadar 
above mentioned? Eadarscol would thus mean the child, clan or kin of 
Eadar ; or Eadarste-Nyl, the chief of the house of Eadar. 

As to the man Metellan, whose daughter the chroniclers say was the 
mother of Caratake, I may say that I have met with no such form of name 
as Metellan either in the Gaelic or Welsh. But, considering the circum- 
stances of this case a person might think it had been put down by mistake for 
Maelaedhan, i.e., Mil-edh-an, being the diminutive of Miledh and meaning 
the son of a Milesian, Gael or Scot. It may, however, have been formed 
from the root meiteal, metal, so that Metellan would thus mean, as we 
would say, ' a man of metal,' meaning a spirited, courageous person. 
This Metellan, whatever may have been the form of the name he went by, 
is put down as ninth lineal descendant in the male line of Fergus 1st, so 
that he must have been understood as a Gael, and, therefore, the first ex- 
planation I have given of the form of name they have given him, although 
it might appear to some the most unlikely, would not be without probabil- 
ity in its favor, as conveying first the proper root idea, and secondly the 
idea intended to be conveyed by the appellation. 

When the ancient Saxon Scotch Chronicles, in so far as they bear on our 
subject, are fully compared with those of the ancient Irish upon the same 
subject there will be really found .to be no difference between them, as to 
the matter under consideration. Both lines of history have evidently been 
much mystified, but careful investigation and comparison throws off the 
veil. 

The Scotch genealogical list of Fergus, the son of Ere, as given by An- 
drew de Wyntoun, serves as an indicator of the descent, in which a person 
would think the channel had been made so broad in places as to admit the 
sailing of other craft besides that of the line of Fergus ; but still this is 
not so in fact, for although he gives 14 names from Fergus II. to Conair 
II., these two included instead of 10 which is the proper number; and 39 
between Fergus and Aengus Tuirmac, these two included, instead of 27, 
the proper number, still, this filling up, as may be understood by a study 



72 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

of the word-forms, in their connections was done by the putting into the 
list of epithets of these men, which perhaps were used to have been applied 
to them in addition to their real names, and which he employed to fill out 
his meter. In giving the three parallel columns of names to the extent of 
which I give them after our list proper I had in view other considerations 
besides the important one of the comparison of numbers of descents in 
periods, namely that they might serve to illustrate the subject, which in 
parts I had to explain in connection with my list ; for, firstly, in reading 
over some Gaelic histories as concerning the origin of Fiachaidh Fermhara, 
who is represented as brother of Enna Aighneach and son of Aengus 
Tuirmac,* I thought I had noticed some things which, at least, the modern 
mind would not. be likely to pass over without some investigation and criti- 
cism. But as I have been able to find no variation in sentiment in the 
ancient authorities as to the fact of the descent in this case, I concluded 
that if there were found even some verbal differences as to it these must be 
reconcilable in some way. How this stands will appear as we proceed. 

Secondly. I have thought that I had detected some variations in the 
ancient accounts in relation to the origin of the clan of Deaghaidh, 
through which in the male line the descent is reckoned ; and, although I 
have been able to find no variation in the accounts as to the fact itself of 
the descent being from Aengus Tuirmac to Deaghaidh and from the 
latter to Conair II., still there appeared to me such variations in the his- 
tory at this juncture that I deemed it absolutely necessary to make a 
general examination of it, and to give a general exposition concerning 
it here, in which as a result my conclusions will be plain. 

As to the origin of the clan of Deaghaidh I found in O'H.dloran's His- 
tory of Ireland, under the head of Duach Dalta Deaghaidh, as follows: 
"He had a younger brother called Deaghaidh, both of whom the Book of 
Minister declares to have been as gallant and intrepid heroes as Ireland then 
produced. The same authority acquaints us that consequent upon a dis- 
pute about the succession Duach had his brother's eyes put out. Hence 
Duach was called Dalta Deaghaidh or Blinder of Deaghaidh." 

" O'Flaherty," he continues, "treats this as a fable, pretending that 
Duach had no brother, and that he got the epithet of Dalta Deaghaidh 
from the generous reception he gave to the exiled Deaghaidh and from his 
adopting him as his child. But neither the Psaltar of Cashel nor the Book 



* Aengus Tuirmach Teambrach, i.e., Aengus Tuirmac of Tara, has been entered in the his- 
tories in Christian times under the form Enos: 

The Annals of Cluan Macnoise speak of him as follows: " Enos succeeded and was a very 
good king, lie left two goodly and noble sons, Enna Aighneach and Fiagha Ferwara. The 
moiit part of the kings of Ireland descend of his son Enna. and the kings of Scotlaud, for the 
most part, descended of Fiagha, so as the great houses of both kingdoms derive their pedigrees 
from them. He was of the Sept of Erewon and reigned 32 years," the four Masters say sixty, 
"and then died quietly in his bed at Taragu." Notwithstanding this he may not have been 
king of Ireland but his son was. 



ERIN AND NOETH BRITAIN. 73 

of Lecan, which he quotes on this occasion, justify his assertion. To the 
reverse, the first is my authority for what has been said. " 

O'llalloran appears here to err by misconception, for no history of which 
I have knowledge says that Duach adopted Deaghaidh ; but, on the con- 
trary, they give to understand that Duach had been called Dalta Deaghaidh 
because he himself had been adopted by Deaghaidh. 

Let us hear O'Flaherty upon this subject: " Duach did not obtaiu the 
name of Dalta Deaghaidh, that is, the blinder of Deaghaidh, having had 
no brother, although some fabulously declare he had ; but he obtained this 
appellation because he was the favorite of Deagh, the son of Sen of the 
Erainans. So the book of Lecan has extracted from the Munster Book; 
GillaCaemlian and O'Duvegan's Books assert the same. But Fiach, the 
sailor, the son of King Aengus Tuirmae of the Heremoniau descent, had 
a sou,01ild Aron, who obtained lands in Ulster, from which surname his 
posterity were denominated Eranans, a different race from the more ancient 
Eranans of the Belgian origin, and afterwards distinguished into the 
Deaghads of Munster and theDalfiatachians of Ulster. Therefore, Deagh, 
the descendant of Olild Aron, being expelled Ulster by the sons of Ruidhri, 
obtained a principality m Munster, while his foster son, Duach, had the 
sovereignty of Ireland, and after the death of Duach he was declared 
King of Munster; as his posterity have governed it after, both alternately 
and in conjunction with the Hiberians ; the former governors of the North 
and the latter of the South of Munster." (Ogygia, vol. II , 142.) 

One thing appears evident, namely, that at this time Duach (who he 
was will become more clear before we get through) by some combination 
of circumstances favorable to his side had won the sovereignty out of the 
hands of the Clanna Ruidhri, who had held it now for several reigns. 

Speaking of the same Duach Keating says: "The reason why he was 
called Duach Dalta Deaghaidh was the following: Carbri Kosglethan 
had two sons, Duach and Deaghaidh were their names There was a 
rivalry between them as to which of them should be King of Ireland ; for 
they were both qualified to be candidates for the royalty in mien, person, 
achievements and valor But Deaghaidh, who was the youngest of the 
two, sought to supplant Duach, his elder. When Duach had noticed this 
he sent a messenger for his brother, and Deag thereupon came to the place 
where he was, and as soon as he had done so Duach had him seized and 
caused his eyes to be put out. Hence he got the cognomen of Dalta Deag- 
haidh or blinder of Deaghaidh. This Duach fell by the hands of Factna 
Fathach, son of Cas," a descendant of Ruidhri. A very circumstantial 
story of Keating, it must be confessed, if eventually we find it to be 
mainly allegorical. But, on the other hand, under the head of Conair mor, 
Keating says: "The reader must now understand that the Eranaidhe 
tribes of Munster are of the posterity of this Conair, as are also those of 
the Dal Riada of Alba , and that it was at the time of Duach Dalta Deag 



74 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

haidh that the Eranaidlie came into Munster, whither, according to the 
Psaltar of Cormac, son of Culinan, they had been driven by the tribes of 
Ruidhri, who had vanquished them in eight battles. They afterwards 
acquired great power in Munster from the time of Duach Dalta Deagliaidh 
to that of Mogh Nuadhat ; so that according to the Book of Munster, when 
the race of Ebhir gained the supremacy of that principality for them- 
selves they drove the Eranans into the extreme territory of Ui Rathach, 
now Iveragh in Kerry, and the isles of West Munster, and thus they re- 
mained until the time of Mogh Nuadhat, by whom they were finally ex- 
pelled.'' 

These two quotations in connection with O'Halloran's assertion of the 
Book of Munster having been his authority for what he said might be taken 
to indicate the probability of Duach having had a brother named Deaghaidh 
and also that it was in the time of this Du,ach that the Erawnaidh of Ulster, 
of the line of Olild Erawn, emigrated to Munster, that is, provided that 
on the summing up of the whole evidence on the subject there should 
appear reasonable probability that said Duach had had a brother named 
Deaghaidh, whom he most selfishly and cruelly blinded in order to prevent 
him from supplanting him in the government ; and the fair way then to 
decide upon it would be that there were two men named Deaghaidh con- 
nected with King Duach, the one being his brother and the other the 
then chief of the Erawnaidhe of Ulster, who with his people and their 
chattels, after they had assisted him to the sovereignty, had come and 
made their abode in Duach' s quarters, namely, in Tuath-Mumham, i.e., 
Thomond or North Munster, called after the Degadians, it is said, the 
province of Curo Mac Dairi, i.e., of Cyrus, the son of Darius; for there 
appears in the Scottish genealogy of Fergus, the son of Ere, just at this 
place the name Deaghaidh, to whom they trace, in connection with the 
Irish list. 

The Book of Munster, which is understood to be the same with the 
Psaltar of Cashel, is the principal authority given both by Keating and 
O'Flaherty for the emigration of the Erawnaidhe into Munster in the time 
of Duach and for the report of Duach's having blinded his brother. But 
O'Flaherty (the Book of Cluan Macnoise and the Annals of Donegal, 
quoting from Gilly Caeman's Poem, written in the twelfth century, being 
his authority), says as follows : " Deaghaidh, the son of Sen, the descend- 
ant of Olild Erawn and Aengus Tuirmac, King of Ireland, through his son 
Fiachaidh, of the race of Ereamhon, was beat into Munster from Ulster, 
from whom King Duach was designated the foster child of Deag." 
Ogygia, vol. 1, 172. Whether or not there was a historical foundation 
for the story of the emigration at this time from Ulster into Munster, 
either of a large or a small body of people, it would appear as altogether 
more probable that Duach, during his life never was given the appellation 
Dalta, although he may have had the appellation Deaghaidh, as a title of 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 7^ 

honor and respect given to him in connection with his proper name Duach 
or Edamh or Daemh or Edhamhrach, all the same. 

The translator of Keating's history, referring to the expression ' blinder 
of Deaghaidh,' used by Keating, says: " Dalta can scarcely admit of the 
forced meaning given to it in this case by our author. It is the common 
Irish word to express fosterling or Alumnus, and it is to be questioned if a 
single other instance can be shown from Irish writings in which it has ny 
reference to blinding. O'Flaherty shows from the Book of Lecan, from 
O'Duvegan's Bi>ok, and from Gilla Caemhan'sPoem, written in the twelfth 
century, that Duach had no brother named Deaghaidh, but that he was 
called Dalta Deaghaidh, because he was the Alumnus or foster son of 
Deaghaidh, son of Sen of the Ernaans of Ulster. See, also, O'Donovan's 
Notes on the Four Masters." 

This gentleman's view will be found to be most consonant with reason, 
in so far as the word Dalta, in connection with the case, is concerned ; 
when it is known that the Gaelic word for ' blind ' is ' dall,' whose present 
participle is 'dalladh,' 'blinding.' 'Dalta,' 'diminutive,' 'daltan,' is 
their common word in use for ' foster-child.' 

O'Flaherty starts out under the head of King Duach as follows : ' ' Duach 
of the Hebei'ian line, blind of an eye." And Keating, on page 141 of his 
history of Ireland, in giving " an enumeration of the most famous and 
noble persons of the Tuatha de Danaans," reckons among them Eochuidh 
Garbh, the son of Duach Dall ; which tends to show that the Duach we 
have now under consideration was the one meant; for by looking in the 
middle column of the three parallel columns of names which I have given 
for comparison and illustration, you will find Eochaidh Garbh, whom I 
have identified with Ferulni, i.e., "the man of the sun," i.e., perhaps a 
priest of Baal, having, doubtless, this office united with his chieftaincy, 
set down as son of Deaghaidh Teamhrach. 

In the same enumeration we find ' Begreo, the son of Carbri Cean-Chaith, 
the son of Tabharn ;' but Carbri's father is set down generally in the his- 
tories as Dubhaedh or Dubhtbach, and consequently we find Tabharan to 
equal Daebharchon or Dubharchan, and so Duveriu to be the same with 
the old word Tarn, a lake, from which our word. tarnish, to make dull, 
duff, dun, or of the color of water. But the list given of the ancestors of 
King Lughaidh ' Mac Conn ' clears this subject from such ambiguity as 
might be otherwise thought to be connected with it, for in the exact place, 
tracing back in that list from our Conair II., we find ' Edhamhrach or 
Deaghaidh Teamhrach,' which plainly shows Deaghaidh to have been only 
an honorary appellation of Duach or Edhamhrach, in addition to his proper 
name, and this same man to have been monarch of Ireland ad of male 
descent from Olild Eravvon or Eramhan. The old lists represent this man's 
descent as being from one Ebher, a brother of Eramhan. But this latter 
form is made up of Er and amhan ; and this Er is evidently but a contrac- 



76 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

tion for Ebhir or Emhir; anil the two names, as so understood, are most 
likely to be but variations of the same name, referred, in this case, at least, 
to the same man. For it is most likely that in the early ages Ebhir and 
Ebhiramhan, the one being the diminutive of the other, were wont to be 
used for each other. Iar, Iarr or Earp, which is the same, means the 
west, and many other things as a dwelling or city, Latin Urbs, root Earb ; 
and this Earbli is a transposition of Ebhar, of which Er is a contraction, 
arising from the pronunciation, Ewar. Eramhan is for Ebharamhan and 
this the diminutive of Ebhar and used for it. Earp is Europe, the western 
country. 

That Duach Dalta Deaghaidh was of male descent from Earamhon and 
Aengus Turmac implies the genealogical line of the Munster royal houses, 
so-called, to break at this Duach. In some places O'Flaherty mentions 
the difficult}' he experienced in trying to find the steps in the Eberian 
descent ; we can now perceive the reason, namely, the steps of the descent 
were not to be found in the line in which he sought them. Any one, 
therefore, can see the boon we possess in the list of the ancestors of 
Lughaidh Mac Conn, so called, monarch of Ireland, which shows in gen- 
erations the exact time this family of Gaels has been in the British Isles. 

By certain marks I have noticed in my progress in the Irish history I 
can (independently, I think, of the course taken by Valiancy, Beauford 
and that class of investigators), if not identify yet at least classify the 
Partholians and Nemedhians with the people they call the Heberians. For 
instance, Partholan and Ebhir are represented as having had each four 
sons of exactly the same names respectively, Er, Orba, Ferann and Fergna. 
As to the significations of these, Er, means head, chief ; Orba, inheritance, 
patrimony; Fearann, land, a farm ; Feargna, chieftainship, superiority ; 
and Eargna, the same word, wanting the digamma, meaning knowledge. 
In commenting on this subject Mr. Skene has also remarked that we have 
a reproduction of two of the sons of Partholan in Ruidhri and Slangi, two 
of the leaders of the Ferbolgs. 

Nemedha from Nomae or Momae and this from the old Celtic Mou or 
Nou, a country, and Mam or Mae maternal, whence Momae or Nomae, 
original people, aborigines ; Mumha or Mumhau, Minister, the land of the 
Ebherians, the mother country. (See Beauford in Vail.) But I would 
consider it too narrow a view to be entertained that all the Scots of the 
British Isles must needs have sprung from Ith and Labhradh Longseach 
and Olild Erawn. The people of Ith appear to have been the conquerors 
of the country, in what they term the Milesian invasion, whose govern- 
ment they held in their own family till the invasion of the Anglo-Normans 
in the twelfth century A. D. 

The so-called Ebherians need no more think in the partial way in which 
they have been accustomed to think concerning those matters ; for if they 
be of the roy'al stock of Munster they are, thus, of the royal stock of Ire- 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 77 

(and ; there being, in effect, only one royal line, that called of Earamhon, 
i.e., Olild Erawn ; and the house which held the sovereignty in succes- 
sion with their very near kinsfolk in the male line were esteemed the roval 
kinnel of the island. Some people might look upon Brian, King of Ire- 
land, who fell at Cluan Tarbh in 101-4 A. D , as having introduced a new 
dynasty in his person; but he was not thus thought of by the Irish na- 
tion. He is entered in the genealogic list as 31st descendant in the ma'e 
line of Duach Dalta Deagh, the list mentioning no intervening one of his 
line as king of Erin but many as kings of Munster. The story about 
Brian dethroning Melsechlan, becoming king of Erin himself and getting 
killed in battle in 1014 A. D., appears interesting. The Irish, however, 
defeated the Danes at Cluantarbh without the loss of their king, and Brian 
and Maelsechlan 11a Nial, in the same person, occupied Tara for several 
years after that battle. 

The history represents Factna Fathach a descendant of Ruidhri, who 
appears in the history next aftor Duach, as the father of Concobhar Mac 
Nessa, King of Ulster. Some have thought this Conchobar to have been 
identical with Conair mor, but the chronology admits not of this, there 
being three or four generations between Factna, in range with Uar. son 
of Deaghaidh and Conair mor. This, too, makes the accounts of the Irish 
histories appear not the less reasonable, which have queen Mesibocalla, 
the wife of kind Edarscol and mother of Conair mor, to have been grand- 
daughter of King Eochaidh Areatnh by his daughter Esa and of Coneo- 
bar, king of Ulster, by his son Cormac Conlingas. For Factna, ' the wise,' 
would range in generation with Uar, son to Deaghaidh ; Conchobhar, his 
'son, would range in generation with Olild son of Uar; Cormac Conlingas, 
son of Conchobhar, would range in generation with Eoghan son to Olild ; 
and Mesibocalla, daughter of Cormac Conlingas, would range in genera- 
tion with Eadarscol and be of an age to be marriageable with him. This 
would clearly also indicate Conair mor to have been third in descent from 
Achy Aremh which although it might appear too distant, considering the 
collocation of the names and the chronological computations of Keating 
yet appears, reasonably to bear out the historic representations of the Irish 
historians, exhibiting, as it may be supposed fairly to do, the exact num- 
ber of generations between Achy Areamh and Conair mor. 

The age we are now contemplating was emphatically that of the Irish 
heroes. There doubtless is myth obscuring the history in places ; but even 
in that preChristian age there must have been considerable intelligence not 
only in Ulster, as connected with Emania, but throughout Ireland ; and so 
there may be supposed to be such a reasonable thread of history left ap- 
parent as will enable the unprejudiced investigator by close and patient 
application, and a comparison of a reasonably fair number of authorities 
on those periods, to separate the chaff from the wheat in the narration. 

But as to the possibility of the name Conair being a form of Conchobhar 
or exchangeable with it I have made inquiry of a gentleman brought up 



78 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

in the Irish language and a teacher thereof and he informed me there was 
no likelihood of the name-forms Conair and Conchobhar having been used 
or mistaken for each other ; that they are understood as different names, the 
last being pronounced Crunacher and the other being related to the form 
Curi, genitive Conrigh or Coneri ; a primitive form of which would be 
Cathair, whose component parts are Cath, battle and fear, a man ; and 
that Cathair must be equivalent to Conair, which is compound of Cean or 
Cathan, pronounced C'awn and fear ; being in effect the same. In these 
compounds the f being aspirated and quiescent does not appear. 

With respect to the three columns of names, in their natural relation 
from father to son in each column^ which I give for the purpose of illus- 
tration and comparison of the numbers of descents there may be in par- 
allel lines of descent for the same period I may say that the number of 
ancestors, which are put down definitely in the histories for Ruidhri mor 
is ten, which makes the tenth, Ollamh Fodhla, to be of the same generation 
of Ughain mor. The appellation Ollamh Fodhla, signifying the philosopher 
or sage of Erin ; and Carbri, the appellation given to his son, signifying 
merely a prince or king's son, and used, doubtless as a cover to his real 
name, might perhaps all be taken as pointing to the identity of Ollamh 
Fodhla and Ughan mor. If then Ollamh and Ughan were identical with 
our Ith, at what point of the Ithean line, which, as containing the oldest 
forms, we ma}' consider the main line, are we to suppose the line of 
Ruidhri mor branched out? With respect to this, in consideration of the 
whole case, a reasonable supposition would be that the father of Ruidhri 
mor may have been either that Ereamhon, standing in the middle column, 
who is the Olild Aron or Ereamhon in the Scottish list of our ancestors, 
or a brother of this Erawn, namely, Irr; if we be allowed to suppose he 
had a brother of that name ; for the Irish histories claim their Ruidhri 
mor to have been in male descent from one Irr, the brother of their 
Erawon. This, then, would give an independent line of descent to the 
Rudricians from the grandson of Aongus Tuirmac, which grandson lived 
in the twelfth generation before the Christian era. 

This hypothesis regarding the parentage of Ruidhri, would of course, 
imply the identity of all the men represented by all the names in the left- 
hand column down to the father of Ruidhri, whom it supposes to have been 
a brother of Erawan rather than this man himself, with the men repre- 
sented by their corresponding names in the middle column. 

When Tiornach states that, in the time that Cimbaeth, son of Fintain 
reigned at Emhain, Eochaidh the father of Ughain reigned at Tara he says 
in two foot-notes in regard (1) to Cimbaeth, " By some Liccus is reported 
to have reigned" (at Emhain); and in regard to the father of Ughan 
(2) he sa3's: " Praescripsimus Ollam ab Ugain regnasse," which last may 
perhaps, be translated as follows: " Ollamh, the father of Ughan has been 
reported to have reigned." Or if we have to follow the regular Latin 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 79 

construction it would be : " By Ughan Ollamh has been reported to have 
reigned." Ab in the Gaelic means a father and Tiernach maj' or not 
have intended that meaning for it in this Latin sentence. In Latin Ab is 
usuall}' the preposition ' by ' with the ablative. 

A farther attempt at identification of the left-hand list, therefore, with 
the main It'iean column is not to be looked for ; and whenever that line 
of descent got a king of their men on the Irish throne after Ruidhri it sim- 
ply indicates for that time their superiority in genius, persuasive language, 
but especially in military strength to the representatives of the main 
line of the monarchy, or descendants of Erawan. To the clans of Ruidhri 
pertained the kingdom of Emhania or Ulster. 

Referring to the middle and right-hand column of the three parallel ones 
I may first, remark that supposing the name forms Ith and Ughan to 
represent the same man, then Ith as a personal appellation, would stand 
for Eth or Ethach, i.e. Eochaidh ; and Ughan or Ewan was among the 
Gaels esteemed in effect the same name as Eochaidh, especially in the very 
early ages. De Wyntoun's tabulation of the names which I follow here 
marked ' Eochaidh of the bushy hair' father to Catan and then pushes his 
' Usue mor' back six places farther ; but his putting in those six names 
here between Aengus Tuirmac and his Eochaidh Altlethen, which names or 
forms do not appear in any of the Irish lists, shows that he followed here 
a somewhat different course than they, for their part, seem to have had in 
view ; and the system he followed shows that he had a distinct idea in his 
mind of what he was about and must have had good ground for his proceed- 
ing here. 

However, comparing De Wyntoun's list in this part with the genealogical 
list of King MacConn and with the course of the events of the "Irish 
history I would regard De Wyntoun's Eochaidh, the father of his Catan, 
as really the first of his list proper ; and would consider that in his prefixing 
all the names he has prefixed to that proper list he may have given too much 
credit to the old lists he found before him and without having sufficient 
evidence of their real historical relation of natural descent of father to 
son in each ease, as seemed represented in the list ; and, therefore, that he 
may not have paid enough of attention to the remark made by Tiernach at 
the start of his history: Omnia Monumenta Scotorum usque Cimbaoth 
incerta erant —"AH the historic records of the Scots to the time of 
Cimbaeth are uncertain." This Cimbaoth is put down as foster father of 
Ughan Mor and king of Emhain or Ulster; but the name Cimbaotli (which 
is the Persian name that the Greeks have rendered Cambyses, and which I 
do not find again in the Irish history, I have thought indicated in this case 
a relation foreign to Ireland, more especially as Tiernach noticed in a foot- 
note that some wrote it was one named Licus, who then reigned at Emhain 
instead of Cimbaeth. This does not prevent, however, that Cimbaeth, son 
of Fintain, may have then reigned at Ewain as one of a new dynasty, 
just established at Tara. 



80 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

But as de Wyntoun has his Eochaidh to have been father to his Catan, 
occupying the exact place of Ughan in the Irish list, I would consider it 
natural to decide this Eochaidh to be for Ughan and this for Ith, and that 
as these three forms are but variations of each other they are likely in- 
tended to represent the same man. 

As I have said, De Wytoun has retained the Aengus Tuirmac of the 
Irish list, giving him six ancestors which do not appear in their list, and 
making his father, Eochaidh Foltlethen, as according to their list, to have 
been his seventh ancestor, thus putting him in the place of Ughan mor, 
back of whom Tiernach does not go. The word Ith, pronounced ii, sig- 
nifies either a district or tribe or, as an adjective, good, answering to eo 
and originally was an appellation for water. It means also wheat and the 
goddess of the filling ears of corn, for whom among the Greeks, doubtless, 
Ceres. Iodh or Iodhan means a collar or a ring, as Iodhan Morain, the 
collar of Morann, son of Main. As a personal appellation the name in the 
old Gaelic was, doubtless, Aedh, which generally is translated Hugh; and, 
of course, Aedhan or Iodhan would be their Ughan. 

Aedh means the sun and also fire, the holy fire of the Baalim or Zoroas- 
trians. In the compound Ith or Ethbaal the first component of the word 
means the same as the second, as is usually found to be so in the Gaelic 
and Phoenician compound words. Either of these forms of name would 
signify a priest-king, a chief who united in his person the office also of a 
priest. 

And now with respect to the six names down to Aengus Tuirmac, I will 
proceed to give such explanation of them in the two corresponding columns 
as I. consider necessary. 

First, by Catan, No. 74, de Wyntoun would likely have had reference, 
first, to the ancestor from whose name was derived the clan designation 
Cathan or Conn ; and secondly, to the harbor or harbors (Cathan ; Cuthan 
or Cuan) in which the Fomorian ancestors were accustomed to rendezvous 
with their fleets, or in which they were making preparation for some par- 
ticular expedition he had in mind, say their great Milesian expedition, so 
called. Lughaidh, in the right-hand column, corresponding to Catan, 
means, for one thing, ' a sea chief.' 

His Ture, No. 73, would point to the tower, Tur or Tor, of old called 
Tor-Inis, and now Tory Island on the northwest coast of Ireland, where 
the Fomorians had their headquarters for sometime, it appears, while dom- 
inating therefrom the island. 

I will give from Keating the account of this so far as I judge it neces- 
sary : — 

" Conaing, son of Faebar, from whom is called Tor-Conaing off the 
northern coast of Ireland and who kept a fleet and presided at Tor Con- 
aing, now Tor-Inis or Tory Island, with More, the son of Daela, exacted 
the tribute of Ireland from the Nemedians. The amount of this tribute 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 81 

was two-thirds of their children, corn and cattle, which had to he pre- 
sented to those two chieftains every year on the eve of Samhain (All-hal- 
lows) upon the field of Magh Kedni, between Drobaeis and Erni. The 
place received the name of Magh-Kedni from the frequent usage of pay- 
ing the tribute there. The Fomorians imposed still another tyrannical 
exaction on the children of Nemedh, namely, three measures of cream, 
flour and butter which were to be sent from every hearth to More and 
Conaing at Tor-Inis ; and this tax was levied throughout Ireland by a 
female steward, named Liag," etc. — "At length anger and impatience 
seized the men of Eri, by reason of that tribute and taxation and they 
rose up to give battle to the Fomorians. ' ' — They then demolished the tower 
or fortress upon Tor-Inis and there Conaing fell with his children and 
kindred. However More, son of Dela, arrived soon afterwards at Tor- 
Inis, from Africa, with a force of sixty ships. Upon this the clans of 
Nemedh fought the Fomorian& again upon the same ground. In this sec- 
ond battle they nearly all either fell by the hands of each other or were 
drowned ; for they did not preceive the tide coming in upon them, such 
was the fierceness of the fight. More, son of Daela, escaped with a small 
portion of his people and with them he took possession of the island." 

He then goes on and relates how most of the Nemedians, i.e., the na- 
tives, expatriated themselves, ' leaving ten warriors to rule the remnant of 
their people who staid behind under the thraldom of the Fomorians.' 
Whether or not this refers to the great Milesian conquest of Ireland so 
called, I must say that although it is not altogether free from a mythic 
coloring it gives, as far as I can find in the whole history of Ireland, the 
most definite statement as to a conquest of that country by foreigners. 

As to the number of ships in the fleet of the sons of Milesius O'Flaherty 
gives that number at 120 sail, while Keating gives it at 30, and Pedro 
Mexia (in his History Imp.) gives it at 60, which is the number here said 
to have been brought in by Merc in his second fleet to Tor-Inis ; so that 
there cannot be anything definitely determined from the number of ships 
they give to the fleet of the Milesians. 

It might, however, be expedient for us to suppose that More (i.e., 
Marach, Mariner), son of Dela with his fellow commander, Conaing, son of 
Faebhar, possessed CO ships with which they carried on their first battle, in 
which they were defeated by the Nemethae or natives, and Conaing 
perhaps slain : That then More returned home with the remnant of the 
fleet, and returned, perhaps in some or many years after with 60 sail more 
well crewed and armed, with which he finally succeeded after strenuous 
and long battling in subjugating the island to his yoke: And that by the 
time the conquest was finally accomplished More may have had say 30 
ships left fit for service, so that the varying accounts as to the number 
of the ships the Milesians brought to the conquest of Ireland might by 
some be thought thus reconcilable. 
6— d 



82 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

The form Mai, No. 73, corresponding to Ture in the other column signi- 
fies a soldier, a prince, a leader ; a man who has to do about war on land- 

Fere-Elmael, No. 72, would indicate chief-man. It is one of DeWyn- 
toun's peculiar construction. Its place in the list makes Edhamhan or 
Ewan, the corresponding form in the other column, to have been with 
some likelihood the proper name of the man. From the accounts which 
have come dowu to us it is entirely preposterous to think that there should 
have existed contemporarily in the island for a long course of ages three 
or four royal houses, each of which had as good a right to the throne 
as any of the others and each of which supplied it in turn, as would 
appear to be represented in the history. 

The procedure of this Gaelic monarchy, when it became 6xed in the 
island, was, doubtless, according to esablished law and reason, as to the 
occupation of the throne ; nor do I think that in this respect it could have 
been very much different in ancient Ireland than it is in such procedure 
in the old established monarchies of Europe in the modern ages. 

Our F3'ere-Anroet, No. 71, simply fills the place in the list of the man, 
whose proper name we suppose to be Lughaidh, as appearing in the other 
column. 

In like manner Fyere Roet, No. 70, would fill the place in the list of the 
man whose proper name was Mathsin, the good chief, or priest. 

And Fere-Cataroet, No. 69, would fill the place of him whose proper 
name may be supposed to have been Sin, the chief or the priest-king 

As to No. 68, Aengus and Eosamhan were forms, which in the early 
ages were used for each other. They mean alike good angel, or good 
cave, tomb, temple, or house. Tuirmac, ' son of the tower,' as connected 
with Aengus, again directs our attention to the tower. Edhamhan, No. 
67, was also interchangable with those two foregoing forms, but is usually 
put into the form Euna or Enna. This was the same man they called 
Fiach Fermhara. 

His son Eramhan, No. 66, who has the additional name of Olild, called 
Olild Eramhan in the other list, appears to have been a quite important 
figure. It was in the time of his children that the sons of Ruidhri mor 
attained to the monarchy. 

Mr. Beauf ord states this Olild Axon to have been a conqueror of Ireland, 
having, as he said, led an army into the country from the Mull of Cantyre 
and Galloway in Western Caledonia. The way I would consider this 
explainable would be that he may have quietly led in an arm}' from his 
territories in North Britain to enable him to accomplish a design he had 
formed of possessing himself of the home government of Erin ; for there is 
no doubt that his family carried on a government of somewhat limited geo- 
graphical extent in Western Caledonia, as the ancient name of Galloway 
in Southwestern Caledonia was Brigantia, called so after Breogan, the 
tenth ancestor of this Eramhou. He may have been acting as viceroy in 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. .83 

those countries, when he took it into his head to put himself at the head 
of affairs at home. His father's name being entered in some of the old 
lists as Fiach the Mariner may indicate that the old man had sailed about a 
good deal — perhaps not as a Fomharach — and that this Eramhan may 
have been born in Caledonia. He was of the twelfth Generation before the 
Christian era, which would leave his time say 12 X 33^ = 400 years, by 
which he would die, say about 375 or 380 B. C. This is about correct, too, 
for the Scotch historians inform us that his grandson, their Fergus 1st, 
came to the government of Scotland about 335 B. C. 

It was the descendants in the male line of this man whom I find mainly 
to have held possession of the government of Erin until the partial con- 
quest and occupation of it by the Anglo-Normans, in the last quarter of 
the twelfth century A. D. 

As to our No. 65, it is seen that he whom Fordnn and Buchanan has 
put down as Ferchard and the Irish Chronicles as Feredhach is entered in 
our list of MacConn as Lughaidh Feidhloch. The form Feidhloch is, of 
course, an epithet; and as to Lughaidh or Gaedhal and Feredhach they, 
doubtless, would coincide in the signification of leader or Toiseach, while, 
perhaps, both implying in their roots the idea of a priest. 

I would think also that there might be implied in the forms Lachthna or 
Luchthain, No. 64, some sacerdotal meaning, if not rather that the form 
meant a mariner, i.e., Lach-thain or Luch or Loch-thain, sea captain, as 
our Forga or Fergus 1st, to whom it answers in the list, was a great sailor, 
having gone back and forth from North Britain to Erin several times 
(which in the way navigation was carried on at that early period in those 
quarters and about those coasts and islands, must have been quite risky) 
until, as we are informed by the chronicles, he was finally drowned, his 
vessel having been wrecked on the coast of Ireland at a place called Carrick- 
Fergus, i.e., the crag or rock of Fergus, after his name. So Fordun, 
Buchanan, et al. 

The Irish form Forga or Fergo of DeWyntoun corresponds to the Gaelic 
Fear-ghae, i.e., ' the sea,' or as a personal appellative, ' man of the sea;' 
and the form Fearghus of Fordun and Buchanan means, in all respects, 
the same, being compounded of Fear, a man, and the full form gaes, 
meaning here 'the sea.' This corresponds to Lachthna or Luchthani, as 
above. " Morghae. corruptly Fearghae, the ocean," Beauford. 

The form Nuadhat, No. 63, which corresponds to Maen in our list means 
literally ' a sacreil prominence' having reference, perhaps, principally to 
the ' hisjh places ' dedicated to Baal or the sun ; but as a personal appel- 
lation it would mean a holy man or priest of Baal. This would be one of 
the meanings of Maen, which is Math-ghamhan, literally 'the good or 
sacred blacksmith,' having reference to the Phoenician Cabiri or sacred 
blacksmiths. This Cabiric or Phoenician religion was that of those coun- 
tries for nearly eight centuries after the age we are now considering. The 



84 CRITIQCE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

Mathgamanai were the sacred blacksmiths, the priests of Vulcan (Baal- 
gean), who had to do with the sacred fires, the Sun, in which it was 
conceived the Logh (Logos) chiefly dwelt. Mathghamhan, or Mathdhaera- 
han would also mean ' good house,' meaning church, temple. And 
Nuadhat equals Naemhaedh-at, meaning the heavenly place, i.e., a temple, 
Naemh means heaven and also a ship, for the ark or ship was the ancient 
temple. The form Noah would, from its derivation mean the ' sacred 
ship,' i.e., the ark or a church and also as applied to the man of the 
church, a priest. 

Of course those foregoing, as personal appellations, mean also a chief- 
tain as do Deargthini, No. 62, andDeagh Dearg, No. 61, corresponding in 
our list respectively with Arondel and Sen. Deargthini would mean for 
one thing 'red fire,' perhaps, as representing the sun; also the 'cave' 
or 'house of the fire,' doubtless, as representing a temple of the sun, 
whether a cave or a round tower, whether in a subterranean or on a ' high 
place.' As applied to the man of the temple it would signify a priest. 
Arondel would mean son or rather descendant, dal, of Eramhan. Deagh 
Dearg would signify good cave or house, meaning temple. Also, translat- 
ing Dearg 'red' it would signify the 'red day,' meaning the sun. 
' Dagh-dae among the Tuatha-Dadanans was an epithet of the Sun, the 
god of fire, the bonus deus.' The name Sen or Sin which we have in 
another column has generally reference to a military chief, Toiseach, 
leader. The form Sean or Seun means a charm for protection, and as a 
verb ' to defend by the power of enchantment.' Speaking of ' John, the 
forerunner of Christ,' Valiancy remarks : ' He was also called Sean, that 
is, the blessed ; he who can defend from the power of heathen enchant- 
ments.' Of course, these different forms of name, as applied to the 
same man, might have been given as implying different ideas had of him 
without the idea intended to be conveyed that they were meant to be 
equivalents in meaning in all cases, although they are generally found to 
be so. 

Any one moderately well acquainted with the ancient Gaelic literature 
will at once recognize the old pre-Christian form Edhamhraeh, No. 60, as 
the equivalent of the Duach, or Dumhrach of the Christian ages. This 
man was also called Deaghaidh of Teamhrach, which indicates the sup- 
posed two men, Duach and Deaghaidh, to have been identical and the 
epithet " of Tara " would point to his kingship of Erin. 

Uar, sometimes spelled Hiar, No. 59, which we have in the next place, 
corresponding to Ferulin, is for Ciar or rather Cuir, whose proper geni- 
tive would be Conair or Conari, Ferulni in connection with Eochaidh 
Garbh in another form is spelled Fer Ani, perhaps the pronunciation being 
about the same in both cases, both meaning ' man of the Sun ' or a 
priest-king. The form Siar or Iar, sometimes appearing, means West 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 85 

or back; which clearly corresponds to Culin 'back,' roof, chief, as in 
Ferulni, and is also a contraction for Garbh. 

It may be kept in mind that we are now in the line of the very ancient 
kings of Minister, extending from Duach Dalta Deaghaidh, who was of 
the sixth generation, B. C, to and including Mogh Nuadhat, who was 
identic with the historic Conair II. It has been said that Minister, during 
this period of nine generations, was divided into two kingdoms of North 
and South Munster, the government of these portions alternating between 
three families called of Ith of Ebir and of Eramhan. But I do not find 
that any such condition of affairs had place here. There appears through- 
out this period, at least, to have been but one kingdom of Munster and but 
one line of kings for it in this space, who were in male descent from Duach 
Dalta Deaghaidh, king of Ireland ; and these kings, it is seen, were of the 
stock and line of Eramhon, descended from Ith in male line; the former 
being the same with Emhir, so that you have the whole three families, 
comprised in one ; and this family furnished the kings to Munster, which 
was integral under their government and also the kings to Erin. 

You will understand, therefore, that for this space, the same men have 
been called in the histories bj' three different forms of name in order to 
accommodate the mythico-historic idea of the three lines of descent in 
Ireland, and especially in Munster for this time. 

No doubt, the object of those who in Christian times arranged this 
plan of history for that country was, first, the promulgation of a more 
generally magnificent idea of the country both at home and abroad, more 
especially in regard to its greatness and its probable strength, in being 
unconquered by any foreign power during such a long antiquity ; and, 
secondly, because they conceived that such a publication must tend to 
the unitization of the Irish people, north and south, east and west, and 
the cultivation in the people of all its sections of a friendly and co-opera- 
tive disposition towards each other, in which the national idea should pre- 
vail in breasts glowing with patriotism for their ancient land, far above 
all sectionalism and clannal distinctions. The foundation plan of their 
scheme of history has, however, been based largely upon their ancient 
historic poems, which are to a considerable degree vague and indeter- 
minate, and it is not impossible but that in the carrying out of their his- 
torical plan, there may have been too much assumed or taken for granted 
in places. 

Olild and Sithbolg, No. 58, are the two next corresponding forms, 
meaning in each case, for one thing, ' the man of the high place,' and 
for another, ' a man of peace,' i.e., a priest. Muredhach, Muchna, is in 
another column a correspondent to these forms, and would, doubtless, 
mean 'Muredhach the Pacificator,' with perhaps an allusion to some 
local idea entertained of the man, for which it is sometimes not easy to 
acoount. 



86 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

It might be thought strange how it could happen that the forms Daire 
and Eoghan, No. 57, should correspond in meaning to each other. "Well, 
Daire means for one thing ' an oak ' and so does Eo or the large Eo, 
(Ogygia II., 208) ; Eoghan meaning for one thing, son of the oak, i. e., 
a druid, which is one of the meanings of Darius. You see the two forms 
coincide in this meaning. The oak was sacred to the druids. In another 
column this man is called Mogh Febis, which would mean literally ' a man 
of superiority,' or ' goodness,' a good or excellent man. 

The next corresponding forms, No. 56, are Eadarscol and Edbolg, each 
of which forms meant for one thing in ancient times ' an interpreter of 
Science.' In another column the corresponding form is Loch mor, which 
would mean here ' the great intelligence.' Loch has implied in it, with all 
the other ideas it contains, the cosmical one of order, setting in order, 
imparting intelligence. 

Our No. 55 is Conair or Cathair and Ferulin, which we have met with 
before. In another column the correspondent appellation given is Euna 
Munchaein, i.e., Ewan Munchaein. In the ancient times Ewan or Eoghan 
would have been deemed an equivalent for Conn, perhaps Conan and 
Conair. Munchaein would contain the meaning unexpressed in the fore- 
going forms ' of the gentle house ' or ' of the house of mourning ' or ' of 
the house of kindred ' in which significations it would equal Clan Craebh. 

Our next correspondent forms No. 54, Daire and Dergthini may have 
been sufficiently explained already. I will say, however, that Dearg, 
meaning au oak aud those ideas therewith associated must have arisen 
from an inflection of Daire, i.e., ordinary, modern genitive darach, whence, 
that is, from the ancient genitive form, arose Dearg, the literal meaning 
being ' of shade,' whence meaning a cave, a dark (dearg) shady place. 
Deargthini is then the name Daire with the addition of tinne ' of fire ' or 
' of the sun.' 

In the process of mystification in the Christian ages they have repre- 
sented the Deargthinians, so-called, as being of different origin than the 
so-called Darinians ; but they were of the same descent, as must needs 
have been seen by the historical critics. " The Deargthinians," says 
O'Flaherty, 'the descendants of Lughaidh, the son of Ith.' (Ogygia, 
vol. II. 144) ; while at the same time they had laid down the Darini, as of 
the line of Mac Conn's ancestors. 

Our next form is Carbri, which in one of the three columns is repre- 
sented by Dearg. I think that, as a personal appellation, Daire would 
mean a chief or leader rather than a king, which it is said by Valiancy to 
mean. Dearg must be here an equivalent for Lughaidh in its various 
senses of leader, priest of Lugh or the sun, etc. Carhri means a prince. 

Our next correspondent forms, No. 52, are Mogh Lamha, or as the 
Scots write it Moghallamh, Latinized Mogallus, which might be translat- 
able ' great chief,' and MacNiadh, translated ' son of the hero.' Doubt- 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 87 

less the meaning of either form would have been understood of the other 
in a local sense. The corresponding form in another column is Mcgh 
Niadh, that is, great hero. This man flourished about the year 75 A. D., 
nearly four centuries before Christianity was well introduced in that coun- 
try, so that in attaining to the meaning of the names of those men one 
must think directly of the character of the religion and the social institu- 
tions amidst which they were. The form Mogh, Mugh or Mag had 
anciently the meaning of a priest or druid or magus, whether or not any 
such signification was understood of it in these connections. 

The corresponding forms in No. 51 are Conair and Conn. The form 
Conn of this man's name arose from his proper name Eoghan after Mac, 
that is, MacEoghan is pronounced MacCawn or MacEown, written 
MacConn. In my exhibit thus far I have not had opportunity of showing 
who particularly the man was who was called King MacConn, from the 
fact, that he is not in the line of the ancestors of the kings of North Britain. 
He is Fiachaidh Suighdi, brother of Eochaidh Finn, called otherwise, re- 
spectively, Carbri Musg and Carbri Righada. The way his name is 
expressed in the old lists has left one generation unexpressed in the cren- 
ealogy as reckoned through him to Ith: For example, Lughaidh McConn 
MacNiadh is properly Lughaidh, son of Eoglian, son of Eochaidh, three 
generations where they usually express only two. 

It is likely that Valiancy would have translated our Moghaliamh, ' great 
Lama,' as he did Lughaidh Lamhfhada, 'Lughaidh, the tall Lama.' The 
Lama of Thibet, in Central Asia, corresponds, I believe, among his people, 
as to religious position and relation, somewhat to the Pope among the 
Europeans. We cannot fully represent to our minds the religious opinions 
and general social and political conditions of those ancient peoples. 
"Mogh Lamha, otherwise Eochaidh, King of Munster," says O'Flaherty; 
which shows Eochaidh and Eoghan to have been interchangeable forms in 
those early ages. And that the form Conn and Mac Con has arisen from 
the form Eochaidh is further proved by the Gaelic form Muredhach (i.e., 
Mur Eochaidh), being our English Morgann, which I find the Gaels most 
generally to spell Morcunn or Morchund. 

SaysKeating in his History, p. 317, speaking in reference to this period: 
" Olild Olum, who had a reign of sixty years, is the first king of the line 
of Ebher, who is named in the Reim Righraidh (Royal Roll) as having 
ruled the two pentarchates of Munster ; for previous to the banishment of 
Mac Conn by Olild the sovereignty of Munster was possessed by two 
races, namely, the tribe of Darini of the line of Lughaidh, son of Ith, from 
■which sprung Mac Conn ; and the tribe of Deargthini, of the blood of 
Ebher, of which came Olild Olum. And whenever the sovereignty of Mun- 
ster was possessed by the tribe of Darini, the brehonship and tanistship 
was possessed by the tribe of Deargthini ; and, again, when the kingly 
power was in the hands of the line of Deargthini, the tanistship and bre- 



88 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

honship was the right of the former race. Thus it continued until Mac 
Conn's ambition ascended above the brehonship of Olild Oliim." 

This Olild Olum is said b}' Keating to have been son to Mogh Nuadhat 
and to have been, at first, named Aengus. His filiation is, doubtless, cor- 
rectly given ; and as to the form Aengus it was anciently spelled in such 
a way as that it may or not have been an equivalent for Eoghan and 
Eochaidh. 

But to come to our point, it will be noticed that although Keating says 
at the start that Olild Olum was the first of his line who had been entered 
in the Royal Roll as having been King of all Muuster, still his language 
afterwards definitely implies the integrity of that principality as to its 
political constitution, previously to Olild Olum, the only division noticed 
being on the one side, that of the brehonship or judgeship with the tanist- 
ship, and on the other side the sovereignty of the principality. And, 
according to the ordinary laws of those old monarchies, the tanistsliip was 
always supposed to belong to the oldest son of the actual sovereign, pro- 
viding such son to exist, to be of age and competent ; or, failing this, it 
pertained to a brother, a brother's son or the nearest of kin in the male 
line who was competent. It will be seen that Keating's language does not 
at all imply the division of Minister into two principalities of North and 
South Munster ; nor does he mention the ' Degadians of the Heremhonian 
stock, for whose accommodation, as might seem implied in some writings, 
such a division had been made nine or ten generations previously. For, 
as I have quoted elsewhere, Keating, under the head of Conair mor, says: 
"It was in the time of Duach Dalta Deaghaidh that the Eranaidhe came 
into Munster, whither, according to the Psaltar of Cormac, son of Culinan, 
tljey had been driven by the tribes of Ruidhri, who had vanquished them 
in eight battles. They afterwards acquired great power in Munster, from 
the time of Duach Dalta Deaghaidh to that of Mogh Nuadhat, by whom 
they were finally expelled." This refers to the exact period of the nine 
or ten generations we are considering. But still this is very early, Mogh 
Nuadhat's death being put down for about say 125 to 150 A. D. The 
discovery, however, being made that the appellations Duach and Deagh- 
aidh refer to the same man does away with the idea of two races, such as 
Ebheriau and Eramhonian, in this case, as if pertaining to two ancient 
lines of Kings of Munster; that is, whether or not there may have been a 
remarkable immigration of people from Ulster to Munster in the time of 
said Duach Dalta Deaghaidh. For, it is not unreasonable to suppose, that 
in the case of a member or leader of a very important tribe, having become 
elevated to the sovereignty of the island, he would be disposed to give all 
the advantages he could to his own tribe ; and from the position of Duach 
in the line of the Kings, as given by Tiernach, I would judge him to have 
had perhaps a strong opponent to overcome in his attaining to the sov- 
ereignty, at that time in the house of Ruidhri. Other opponents of any 
note need not be thought of in the case. 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 89 

Speaking under the head of Duach Dalta Deaghaidh O'Flaherty says, as 
before quoted, concerning this juncture : Therefore Deaghaidh, the descend- 
ant of Olild Aron, being expelled Ulster by the sons of Ruidhri, obtained 
a principality in Munster, while his foster-child Duach held the sover- 
eignty of Ireland and after the death of Duach was declared king of Mun- 
ster ; as his posterity have governed it afterwards, both alternately and in 
conjunction with the Heberians, the former being governors of the North 
and the latter of the South of Munster." Ogygia, II. 142-3. 

All this we have had before; but I thought it necessary to sum up all that 
might be thought of any weight bearing on this juncture of the subject. 

It is noticeable, too, that when the men intervening between Deaghaidh 
and Conair II. are mentioned as kings of Munster, they are not entered 
usually as being of North or of South Munster but of Munster. 

After the accession of Conn Cead-Cathach Tiernach, in his way of put- 
ting it, gives to the men of Munster 75 years in the government of Ireland 
at Taragh. This time was doubtless taken up in three reigns : that of 
Conair II. or Conn, that of his son and that of his grandson. I know not 
why Tiernach should class Conn among the men of Munster in particular, 
for there was really only one regular royal line at this time for Ireland, 
namely, the house of the descendants of Conair mor ; but the history had 
evidently been systematized according to a certain plan, in the interval of 
nine or ten centuries between Conn and Tiernach ; and the latter appears 
to have followed in his classification that regular plan or scheme laid down 
in the history. 

When Mr. Beauford relates that it frequently happened " that when the 
same person was distinguished by several appellations," he adds, "our 
ancient historians, not properly attending to this, have committed great 
errors in relating the transactions of early periods by asserting the same 
action to have been performed by several different people, which in reality 
was performed by one only, thereby throwing their history and antiquities 
into too distant a period." 

" A similar error has also been committed," says he, "by not fully 
considering the dignitary names of the chiefs, who, on their election to the 
government, constantly obtained the name appertaining to the clan over 
whom they presided." 

"The only dignity hereditary among the ancient Irish," he continues, 
" and also with all the Celtic tribes was the kings of the several principal- 
ities ; they were elected from the eldest dymists or chiefs of the Can- 
treds and were solemnly inaugurated, according to the custom of the 
tribe. On their advancement to the kingly dignity or captainship of the 
sept thev immediately adopted the general name of the tribe or people over 
whom they reigned, in the same manner as the dynasts did that of their 
several districts." 

This will show why Feidhlemidh Rechtmhar should have been called 



90 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

Conair II. anil several other names ; and why Tuathal Techtnihar should 
have been called Moghallamh, and what not else. 

Speaking of the Kingdom of Meath, he says: "This district was for 
several ages governed by the chief of the eldest sept or tribe of the Bolgai, 
inhabiting the present county of East Meath ; in consequence of his senior- 
ity, he was not only denominated King of the Eremonii {i.e., the inhabi- 
tants of Eremhan or the Province of Leinster), but monarch of the whole 
Island and from him all the subsequent Kin^s of Meath and monarchs of 
all Ireland were obliged to derive their origin to obtain the dignity." 
Vail Coll. III., 2G3. 

Dr. Chs. O'Connor strongly controverted the position taken by Beau- 
ford in relation to a precedency for Leinster over the other provinces. 
He claimed that Beauford had no proof whatever for what he asserted in 
relation to this; and the sense of it which he himself would convey 
amounted to this, that the individual who for the time was monarch of 
Ireland understood himself as representing in his person the whole island 
and as in Tara not for the purpose of favoring or disfavoring any one 
province or person of the Kingdom at the expense of justice ; but there 
as a minister of justice to give equal rights to all. This, of course, is the 
general idea, which is consonant with reason ; but it is not unreasonable, 
on the other hand,»to conclude that there may have been Kings who varied 
from the line of justice and pursued in their administration a partial, 
selfish and unjust course. 

Mr. Beauford informs us that " Conair mor originally built the palace 
of Taragh," "called Braighin Da Dearg, the habitation or Rath of the 
Caves, from its containing several caves under the platform." But I see 
not how this can be so ; for there was doubtless a " palace and parliament 
house of some sort here from the first arrival of the Scots in the 
country ; this monarch may have enlarged and systematized and forti- 
fied the premises according to a plan of his own, somewhat different from 
the previous arrangement. In saying that Conair mor was chief of a 
colony of Caledonians, he only told part of the story concerning him. He 
was, of course, chief of Caledonians, and so was his ancestor Olild Eiam- 
hon before him ; but he united with this so-called Caledonian chieftaincy 
the regular and Orthodox Kingship of Erin He was fifth in descent from 
Duach of Tara and great-great-grandfather of Feidhlimidh Rechtmar. 

Besides Conn, Feidhlimidh is said to have had two sons, named respect- 
ively Eochaidh Finn and Fiachaidh Suighdi. If we allow two men for the 
three names it will be sufficient. In speaking of Fiachaidh, Keating re- 
marks that " though he had acquired a territory in the district of Temhair 
he had never succeeded in making himself monarch," an assertion which 
was not true in regard to himself whether or not it was true in regard 
to his children and grandchildren. This Fiachaidh is said to have been 
ancestor to the tribes called the Deasies of Munster and his brother 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 



91 



Eochaidh to the tribes called the Fothartaigh of Leinster. Lines of de- 
scent from those two brothers to the extent of five generations down and 
pointing towards those Fothartagh and Deasies are given below : — 

Feidhlimidh Rechtmhar, monarch of Eireann. 





Eochaidh Finn 


— 1 

mc, Fiachaidh Suighdi mc. 


( - 

Fiachaidh mc, 


Aengus Meann 


mc, Fiachaidh Righfhada mc. 


Eochaidh mc, 


Cormac mc , 


Fathadh mc. 


Cruthluath mc.', 


Carbri Niadh mc, Dubhin mc. 


Fiachaidh mc, 


Art Corb mc, 


Dubhin mc. 


Aengus mc, 


Fergus Tarbri 
mhar mc, 


mac, Diarmaid O'Duibhne mc. 

* 


C ' J 

£ Eochaidh Muinrea: 


Duibhne Foghluimte mc. 


g Eire mc, 




Duibhni Glic mc. 


a Fergus mc. , 




Duibhne Gaisgeil mc. 


5 Muiredhach mc. . 




Ferithar Uar mc 


03 

■g Eochaidh mc, 




Duibhne mc. 


~ Baedhan mc, 




Duibhne Misneich moir mc. 


O Colman mc, 




Arthur. 


•2 Sneachthain mc, 

>• 

c Fergus mc, 




Ferithar Ollamh mc. 




Duibhne Foltdhearg mc 


to Feredhach mc, 




Duibhne Diadhaidh mc. 


ja Ferchard'III. mc, 




Duibhne BoidheacJi mc. 


7 Ain Ceallach mc, 




Ferithar Fionuruadh mc 


7 Muiredhach mc, 




Duibhne Dearg mc. 


o 

^ Diarmaid mc, 




Ferithar Fileanta mc. 


Galbraith mc, 




Duibhne Donn mc. 


° Gillachathan mor mc, 


Diarmaid MacDuin mc. 


^> Neachthain mc, 


- 


Duibhne Fiacal-Fhionn mc. 


"g Tearlh mc, 




Ferithar Fionn mc. 


§ S"ibhni mc, 




Malcolm mc, 


rK ■ 

^ Muiredhach mc, 




Archibald mc 


5 bomnald mc, called 


Duncan mc. 


the Caimhghilla 


mc, 


Cathlain mc. 


Malcolm mc, 




Archibald mc. 


Grillachrist mc, 




Duncan mc. 


Ferchard mc, 




Dougal mc. 


Tseadh mc, 




Archibald mc. 


Leoid mc, 




Cathlain mor mc. 


Di»iabh mc, 




Sir Neill mac, married to a 


Suibhni mc, 




daughter of Robert Bruce, 


Lacnlan mc, 




1350-1400 A. D. 



92 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

In giving the genealogy of the house of Campbell of Argyle in this right- 
hand column I had to insert eight generations in intermediate places of 
the steps given in the genealogy of that family in Buchanan of Auchmar's 
Book on Scottish Genealogies. Wherever I inserted a name it was in 
effect the family surname, and this I put in italics. Buchanan was correct, 
doubtless, as to the genealogy of that family, which he gave his sanction 
to ; and I believe that I have inserted the proper number of names and in 
their proper places for the generations which existed in the time represented 
within the extremes of the list given. 

A daughter of King Cormac Ulfhada is said to have eloped from her 
husband, Finn Mac Camhail, the then chief of the militia of Erin, with 
Diarmaid O'Duiblme, lie being esteemed in his day a very handsome man; 
but I see not how this could have happened ; for he is in the sixth genera- 
tioned down in succession from Feidhlimidh Rechtmhar, while Cormac is 
only third in succession from the same Feidhlimidh, so that the lady with 
whom he should have eloped must needs have been two generations his 
senior. Cormac Ulfhada, the same with Cormac, son of Aengus Meann of 
the list of the preceding page, was third in descent from Eochaidh Finn 
and is put down in Keating's history for a reign of forty years. Aengus, 
his father, is the same with him called Fergus dubh-dedhach, who suc- 
ceeded the monarch Fiachaidh Suighdi (f'.e., MacConn). But Cormac 
evidently had a good deal of trouble during the time he reigned, arising 
from some members of his own clan of Eochaidh Finn ; for it is noticed by 
Benufort that Aengus, whom they represent to have been a son of 
Fiach Suighdi, but who was doubtless a grandson of Eochaidh Finn, 
and a cousin of Cormac, marched to Tara suddenly at the head of an 
effectual force, entered the palace and slew Kellach, the son of Cormac ; 
and, aware that any corporeal defect incapacitated for the occupation of 
the Irish throne, deprived Cormac of an eye. It is more than probable that 
the length of Cormac's reign was considerably abridged by this accident 
and that he either became a voluntary exile or had to depart the country ; 
for Ulfhada is interpreted "Ulster afar." but may mean " distant from 
Erin." Keating has it that it was consequent upon the safe conduct 
Aengus had given to a gentleman having been violated b}' Keallach that 
Aengus so acted in this case. 

The posterity of Feidhlimidh Rechtmhar, through his son, Eochaidh 
?inn, held the monarchy of Erin after said Eochaidh, excepting in the one 
case of MacConn and perhaps one or two others for short spaces. 

Most if not all, too, which has been written concerning the marriages, 
intermarriages, etc., of the daughters of Conn Cead-Cathach must neces- 
sarily be fictitious. And, besides the subject of the genealogy has been 
rendered obscure b}' their confounding in tlie history two persons to whom 
the name of MacConn appears to have been given, and who appear to 
have been kings of Erin. But MacConn as well as Conair is simply the 
clan name which the chief assumed on his becoming king of Erin. 

O'Flaherty represents Eoghan mor as having brought in an army from 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 93 

Spain, by means of which he accomplished his purpose of acquiring all of 
the government of the country he could. Keating represents him as a 
Munster man who drew most of the army he needed for his purpose from 
Leinster, from his foster-father who resided there, and was son of Cathair 
Mor ; but who, I may say, if he ever did live, could not have existed till about 
five or six generations after the time of said Eoghan mor. Neither of these 
historians appear to call Eoghan mor MacConn, nor to call him King of Erin. 
But I see from O' Flaherty (Ogygiall., p. 357,) that he is entered King of 
Erin in some of the old historians ; and I conclude he must have been 
entered for that office under his clan designation of Conair or MacConn 
The MacConn who brought the foreign army into Erin was the son of 
Eoghan Mor, not himself. But some of his deeds are ascribed to his 
father as, in a contrary way, some Irish historians call Malcolm IV, king of 
Scotland, " Ceanmor," although that title did not pertain to him but to 
his great-great-grandfather, Malcolm III. A consensus of the historical 
statements on the subject points to Eoghan Mor as the MacConn to whom 
the genealogies trace back and to Lughaidh Lagha (hero) " brother of 
OlildOlum" (Keating, p. 017, note; p. 324), as the "Lughaidh MacConn" 
(i.e. , Lughaidh, son of Eoghan), " King of Erin," who brought a foreign 
army into the country and conquered the government out of the power of 
his elder brother, Olild Olum. The sense is, too, that Feidhlimidh Recht- 
mhar and his two sons, Eoch Finn and Fiach Suighdi, are respectively 
Eoghan Mor, Olild Olum and Lughaidh Lagha ; or, respectively, Conair 
II, Carbri Kighfhada and Carbri Musg. 

The war represented as having been waged between Mogh Nuadhat and 
Conn Cead-Cathach hath an allegorial interpretation, rather than real, so 
far as pertaining to Ireland. It had, however, a real existence elsewhere, 
namely, in certain chains of events arising from political, but especially from 
religious differences, which had place in the very early pre-Christian ages 
between the Northern and Southern Scythians, or the Touranians and Per- 
sians, the ancestors of the Irish in Central Asia. In relation to those two 
great divisions of the Scythians, one author says : — 

" Various causes contributed to split this great body into distinct 
nations. Commerce, conquest, and above all, innovations into their ancient 
established religion by the construction of Towers to contain their sacred 
fire," etc. In the Persian detail of the religious war they acknowledge the 
Scripture name of Magog instead of Tour or Turk. When Farasiab or 
Afrasiab, the Scythian King (whose name they translate Father of the 
Persians- — • Ab, father and Faisi, Persians), overran their country in con- 
sequence of this innovation of the Fire Towers, they tell you that when 
they had at length driven him back to Touran or Scythia, north of the 
Persian Empire, a wall or intrenclnnent was built between them called 
Sead Jagioug' u Magioug, i.e., the Intrenchment of Gog and Magog. 
'By Jagiug and Magiug, they mean,' says D ' Herbelot, ' the North and 
South people of the same Nation.' 'Some Asiatic historians,' says the 
same author, ' carry this wall beyond the Caspian Sea, on the west ; others 
so much towards the East, as to give room to think it is the same wall 
that separates China from the Moguls.' 



94 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

"It was," says Valiancy, "evidently a division between the original 
Mogh or Rad, the Magi or fire worshipers in Towers. The same in- 
trenchment is said to have been made in Ireland from Drogheda to Galway 
on the western ocean ; it was named Esker * Eiada or the Magi's division, 
dividing the kingdom of Ireland into two equal parts ; the Northern half 
was called Leith Cuinn, and the Southern half Leith Mogh, i.e., the Magi's 
portion ; and most of the Fire Towers of Ireland were in the division of 
Leith Mogh or of the Magi's half." 

The principal leader of the Tuatha da Danaans in their wanderings was 
the celebrated hero Mogh Nuadhat, usually styled Argiodlamh, i.e., of the 
Silver-hand. As applied to the ancient Irish king, Eoghan mor, this name 
could, of course, have only an allegoric application ; but it is found to 
have a real reference to Zerdust, the first, or Zoroaster, whose name in his 
own language, the Persian, signifies Gold or Silver hand; whose doctrine 
of fire-worship early spread over a great part of Asia and whose time, 
according to Playfair, was about 600 B. C. This was seven centuries 
before our Eoghan mor. 

Now, with regard to the Tuatha de Danaans, it can be made plain that 
this designation has reference not only to a religious sect of those ancient 
Gaels or Scots, but to the people themselves. It is, in fact, a very ancient 
title of those people, as we find the first Persian dynasty on the historic 
records entered as the Pish-dadian, whose duration is said to have been 
2989 years, ending about 500 — GOO B. C. I think it must have reference 
to dynasties of priest-kings ; for this dadian is evidently for the later form 
de dana-an, which means God Almoners, dana (Latin Dona), meaning 
gifts in the way of alms, and Pish, Puish or Paish, being for Budh, for 
which Tuath or Tuatha; that is the more modern form Tuatha de 
Danaan is for the ancient form Puish Dadians. Speaking in reference to 
this, Mr. O'Brien, the author of the 'Round Towers,' says as follows: 
" All oriental writers, when referring to Budha, who was born at Maghada 
in South Bahar, state that he was the son of Suad-dha-dana ; and Suadh 
and Tuath were but disguises of each other and both resolvable into 
Budh. Tuath is but a modification of Budh, the final dh changed into th, 
'and the initials b and t being always convertible.' The expressions 
De Danaans meaning God-Almoners, if we prefix to them severally Tuath 
ami Pish they will become Tuatha de Danaans and Pish de Danaans, both 
fairly representative of each other, meaning God-Almoners, and, by con- 
vention, Magic-God- Almoners." " Pith is the usual method of pronounc- 
ing that term ; nor is it except when followed by a d that it assumes the 
other garb. But as dh in the former instance was commuted into th, so 
th in the latter is still further into sh," etc. 

This author is, doubtless, correct in the main as to what he here states 
and especially so in his saying that Pish and Tuath are used for each other 
as prefixes to Danaan ; but I may say that the idea in the expression has 



* Eascra, a rocky ridge ; Read-aire, a priest; Persian Rad, a Magus. 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 95 

especial reference to the ancient Holy Ship, the Ark, the Church ; the 
Pish, Budh or Tnath, etc., being to the Danaan in a like relation as you 
may conceive the mast to be to the ship ; which perhaps our author did not 
have an entirely clear conception of. 

Caiomurs or Cai-amrath, the chief of the Emirs, is put down as the first 
King of the Pish-dadian dynasties of the Persians ; this man they repre- 
sent as having been a great reformer and great-grand son of Noah. What 
has been said, however, is enough to show that Tuatha de Danaan was, as 
Bolgae, a very ancient national name of those Scythians or Scots and had 
not reference altogether to a religious division of this people, although in 
some of the late ages it was doubtless given some such specific reference. 

Now, supposing for illustration, their Milesian expedition to have been 
about the time of Ughan mor, from the reckoning before given in genera- 
tions we know pretty near what its leader's date was; and between their 
Niul, who was, according to their account in command of the fleet of 
Pharaoh at the time of the Israelites exodus from Egypt, they have (as 
I would understand from De "Wyntoun's reckoning between Milesius and 
Breoghan) about twenty-four generations between their Milesius and their 
Niul, which might leave the exodus to have taken place at the time of 
the going out of the Hikshasu from Egypt, which was, say from 1500 to 
1540 B. C. Bishop Usher reckons the time of the Israelitish Exodus at 
1491 B. C, while Baron Bunsen seems inclined to the date of 1320 B. C. 
One of the earlier dates is of course better for historical purposes, as it 
may have historical reference to the departure of the Hikshasu in the time 
of Tuthmosis III. 

Reckoning then from the Christian era to and including Niul (suppos- 
ing their Niul for the purpose of the reckoning to have been an individual 
man) we have about 46 generations, which at the rate of 33^ years for 
the average would leave the said exodus to have taken place or the said 
Niul to have lived in about 1533 B. C. (46X33$= 1533$). This is an 
approximation and leaves out of the account the names given in the old 
Gaelic lists between Ughan mor and Miledh Esbain, which I will now 
exhibit and remark upon. 

The following is the old list back from Aengus Tuirmac, by which you 
can reckon back from Ughan mor : 

68. Aengus Tuirmac mac. 84. Olild Olchaein me. 

Eochaidh Foltlethen mc. Siorna Saeghalach mc. 

Olild Cas-Fiaclach mc. Dian mc. 

Conla Cruadh-Cealgach mc. Deman mc. 

Iaran Gleo-Fathach mc. Rothechtach mc. 

Melgi Molbhthach mc. Maen mc. 

Cobhthach Cael Breagh mc. Aengus Oll-Buadhach mc. 

Ingani mor mc. Fiachaidh Labhranni mc. 



76. Eochaidh Buadhach mc. 92. Smirgoll mc. 



96 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

77. Duach Laghraeh mc. 93. Enboth me. 

Fiachaidh Tolgrach mc. Tighernmas mc. 

Muiredhach Bolgrach mc. Follamkan me. 

Simeon Breac mc. Ethrial mc. 

Aedhan Glas mc. Irial Faidh mc. 

Nuadhat Finn Fail mc. Erimhan mc. 

83. Gialchaidh mc. Gallamh or Miledh Esbain. 

By reckoning up here you will find the number of names from Eochaidh, 
put down as father of Ughan mor, to Gallamh, these two included, to be 
24, which is about the number between Ughan, considering him for illus- 
tration as Miledh Esbain, and Niul, these two included ; that is, taking 
the reckoning of DeWyntoun between his Miledh Esbain and his Breogan, 
it is just the same. A person would think from this that the Milesians 
had come direct to Ireland from the exodus of the Israelites, at which 
their history says their ancestor, Niul, was present as admiral of the 
Egyptain fleet : but on such an assumption what is to be done with the 
other 24 generations, which, we see, they include in their reckoning back 
to that exodus? The general result of investigation would, perhaps justly, 
lead to the conclusion that the time of Ith or Ughan was that of the cele- 
brated Milesian invasion and that the names given in the list back from 
Ughan, as pertaining to Ireland, were of men of the same race as pertain- 
ing to Asia, whether or not that list indicated a continuation of the chain 
of the ancestry in Asia. If, then, this list back from Ughan to Gallamh 
be accepted as the continuation of the chain of the ancestors, whether in 
Asia or in Ireland, that is, in the eastern or western Eirean, that list from 
Gallamh back to Niul will needs be rejected as superfluous, either one of 
the lists being fairly supposed to contain the number of generations which 
is sufficient to fill up the space. The ratio of three generations on the 
average for a century being pretty well established as sufficient for the 
Christian ages there is no good reason why it should not be deemed a fair 
average for the preChristian ages also. 

The following is the list given as of those from Miledh Esbain to Niul, 
these two being supposed included in this list : — 
Gallamh or Miledh Espaine mac. 
Myli mc. 
Veande mc. 
— Broge mc. 
c* Breoghan mc. 
h> Bratha mc. 
o Deaghatha mc. 
B Arcadh mc. 
g Allod mc. 
Zl Nuadha mc. 
& Ninnuall mc. 
^ Febric Glas mc. 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 



97 



Adnamhan mc. 
o Eber Glun Fionn mc. 
,. Lamh Fionn mc. 

— Adnoin mc. 

— Tath mc. 
Eocliamhnn mc. 
Beogliamhan mc. 
Eber Scot. 

Sru mc. 
Esru mc. 
Gaedbal Glas mc. 
Niul mc. 



Pbenius Pbarsaidhe. 
Genealogies of Partholan, Nemedh, Tlie Firbolg, and Tuaika de Danaan 
a Fatbacta, a descendant of Magog, son of Japbet Gadel. 
"3 Framant mc. 
-£ Esru mc. 
Ph Sru. 
"o Sera mc. 



bo 

_o Partbolanmc. 

"o3 

v 

a 

v 



jd Tatb mc. 

g Pamp mc. 

« Adbamban mc. 

,,_, Nemedb mc. 
o i 



a 
C5 



bo Starn mc. 
,§ Beoan mc. 
g Erglan mc. 
_g Simeon mc. 
•h Ortbect mc. 
ja Gostenn mc. 
"3 Otorb mc. 
rj Tribuadb mc. 
§ Tecta mc. 
« Loch mc, 
•- Daela mc. 
u Gennan mc. 



a Iarbanel the Prophet mc. 

g Beothach mc. 
q Ibaath mc. 
£ Batbach mc. 

a Enna mc, 

« Tabarn mc. 

H Tath mc. 

ja Aldae mc. 

<h Indae mc. 

o 

>, Old an mc. 

_o Edarlamh inc. 

j» Echthach mc. 



U Rindal mc. 
bo 
.5 Erondealbh mc. 

1-1 Oris Eclonnach mc. 

^ Lughni Liath Cbean mc. 

^ Tath Tedmennach mc. 

g Dithchon Uaridneach mc 

a Ruidbri mc. 



^ Nuadhat Argedlamh mac. 



7— <J 



O 
_= 



Dubhthach mc 



£h Carbri Ceanchaith mac. 



98 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

King Carbri Cean-Chaith corresponds in my general tabulation with 
King Crimthan, son of Lughaidh and father of Feredhach Findfectnach ; 
and if you reckon back from Carbri you will findStarn (i.e., Si-Tighearn, 
Sea-Chief) his ancestor, son of Nemedh, to correspo nd in generation with 
Uglian Mor and Ith. 

Also, in the genealogy of the Tuatha-de Danaans you will find by trac- 
ing down from Iarbanel, their ancestor, son of Nemedh, who corresponds 
in generation with Ughan and Ith, that Nuadhat Argiodlamh, whom they 
enter as their king, corresponds in generation with our Nuadhat Argthech 
in the direct line of Ith. I have thought that Argthech may have been 
written for Argiodlamh, the latter meaning Nuadhat of the Silver Hand 
and the former the Silver or Monied Nuadhat. 

Those people called Firbolg are also discovered to be Fomorians ; I see 
that Gann and Genan, two of their chieftains, are classed under the latter 
designation where they fall fighting against the Nemedians at Kos Frae- 
chain. ( Keating' s Histr. p. 124.) 

It is very clear, taken all together, if what is given in the histories in. 
dicate even with approximate correctness, that the peoples called Firbolg 
Fomorian, Scot, Milesian, Gadalian and Tuatha da Danaan are the same 
people, their commencement in the British isles being indicated by the 
place of Ith or Ughan in the list. 

There is also enough given on the page last referred to to indicate the 
Nemedians to have been the natives, who had a government already es- 
tablished in the island and with whom the Fomorians had to wage war re- 
peatedly before they succeeded in establishing themselves in the country- 

But our Nemedh is here made father to Starn and Iarbanel, the ances- 
tors respectively of the Firbolg and the Tuatha de Danaan, which may ap- 
pear the same as to say that he was ancestor to our Milesian or Scot. 
The appellation Nemedh would mean the leader of a multitude, of a no- 
madic horde, such as pertain to those Eastern countries, whence those 
people had immigrated to the isles of the West. 

Our Scots or Milesians, theiij may have descended from some Nemedh 
far back, but who is placed here in the genealogy as the father of the Sea- 
Chief, Starn, Learmon, Ughan or Ith. 

It is reasonable, however, to conclude from the indications given that 
those people here called Nemedians and Partholians may have pertained to 
the British isles for ages anterior to the time of our Ith and may have been 
of male descent from the same ancient Scythic stock as he. And while 
our Ith or Uglian indicates an influx of foreigners from the eastern coun- 
tries to the isles of the West, the direction in which the genealogic index 
points backward would simply show that the island was then replenished 
with a robust and stirring body of inhabitants from the same old source 
which had furnished its former population. 

The genealogy of the Tuatha de Danaan in the last table is from Keat- 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 99 

ing, but there is another table in the Irish history which traces back this 
tribe to Chus, the son of Cham. It is as follows : — 
Noah. Starn Fiacla mc. 

Cham mc. Mercell mc. 

Chus mc. Larcogh mc. 

Fedel mc. Galamh mc. 

Pelest mc. Liburn me. 

Ephice mc. Blosg or Plasg mc. 

Uccat mc. Ciolcadh mc. 

Sadhal mc. Niadh mc. 

Siopurnach mc. Eathlan me. 

Breas mac. 
The Rcim Roighree informs us that the Tuatha de Danaans were of the 
family of Chus, tiie son of Cham ; and from Bochart we collect that 
Dedan, son of Rhegma, son of Chus, settled in or about Oman, which is 
seen on the map situated on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf. But 
there is recorded also a Dedan, descended of Abraham, whom some ex- 
positors report to have settled at Dedan in Idumaea and thought to have 
been the same mentioned in Jer. xxv ::??>. and in Gen. xxv:l-5. But 
I cannot at this day distinguish a Dedan settled in Oman, in that very 
primitive age, from a Dedan settled in Idumaea in a much later age. I, 
however, would consider it not improbable that the Dedanites may have 
given the old name to their new settlement in Phoenicia, when those peo- 
ple had migrated from the Persian Gulf to Palestine and Idumaea. For 
the apparently two pairs of brothers, named Sheba and Dedan, the first 
given being said to have been descended from Chus and the second from 
Abraham, the lines of descent are given as follows from the Bible : — 
Noah. x Noah. 

■ Shem, son of .d Cham, son of 

* Arphaxed, son of „ Chus, son of 

rs Sala, son of 'S Raamah, son of 

* Eber, son of g Dedan and Sheba, sons of 
m Peleg, son of s^ 

S Reu, son of 

cs Serug, son of 
O Nahor, son of 
.2 Terah, son of 
'a Abraham, son of 
O Jokshan, son of 

Dedan and Sheba, sons of 

In the one case Dedan is the twelfth in descent from Noah and in the 
other the fourth. But, as it says in connection with the Dedan, grandson 
of Abraham, that he was father of the Assyrians (Asshurim, Gen. xxv:3), 
who are said in Genesis, oh. x:6-12, to have descended of Chus; and in 



100 CRITIQL"K OF scottic HISTORY. 

Gen. x:22-24, these Assyrians as well as the Elamites or Persians^ 
Lydians, etc., are said to have descended from (Shem, I would think it 
looks very like as if the forms Shem and Cham were but variations of each 
other ; and that Chus and Abram may have been but different names 
applied to the same person, the one, whichever that was, being given to 
him merely on paper, the other the real name of the man, applied to him 
during his life. I will remark, however, that in regard to the records of 
the ancient Egyptian monuments and literature Mr. Brugsch Bey has 
found the Jewish or Israelitish nation to be entirely undistinguishable from 
the Phoenician ; while some of our very able and particular Biblical eth- 
nologists have not been able, with so much distinctness as they wished, to 
locate our Arphaxed and his clan, put down in the ancestry of Abram. 
Some, doubtless, would like to know how many sons our investigators are 
ultimately going to allow the patriarch Noah to have had, whether one, 
two or, wholeheartedly, three. 

As to our Breas the authorities state him to have been a Fomorian, and 
generally agree that he was the first king of the Tuatha de Danaans in Ire- 
land. Blosg or Plasg being among his ancestors is said to indicate his 
descent from the Pelasgians, whom we know to have had a national exist- 
ance in the later ages under the appellations of Greek, Italian, Etruscan, 
or Tuscan, etc. This they understand, also, from the words of Homer, 
whom they call a Pelasgian Greek writer, and from whom are the following 
words, as translated from his language: — 

" Parent of gods and men, Pelasgian Jove, 
King of Dodona and its hallowed grove; 
King of Dodona, whose intemperate coast, 
Bleak winds infest and winter's chilling frost 
Round thy abodes thy priests with unwashed feet 
Lie on the naked earth." 

The Greek writers do not agree as to the location of the oracle of 
Dodona. Some will have it in Thessaly, some in Epirus, others in Thesp- 
ratia, Chaonia and Molossa, and some say that it was so called from 
Dodanim, the son of Javan and grandson of Japhet (Gen. x:4). But 
Dodanim is plural of Dodan and represents a nation, as Kittim, 
Tarshish and Elisha, in the same verse, represent each a nation, which, 
however, does not hinder, but that these nations may have been called so 
after, say, Daedan, Chith, Elisha and Tarshish, sons of Javan and grand- 
sons of Noah. The few steps given of this descent are as follows: — 

Noah 

Japhet, son of 

Javan, son of 

Daedan, son of. 
Although Flaherty says that the Firbolg entered Ireland from South 
Britain, and the Tuatha de Dauaan, in a long time after, from North Bri- 



ERIN AND NORTH BlilTAIX. 101 

tain, still there is no need of our agreeing with him in this or of our 
supposing that they came to that country from Britain or that both of 
these names did not pertain to the same people of the one so-called 
Milesian invasion. In those opinions I do not find that he has any sup- 
port from the original Poems on which he pretends to found and I think 
him to have had somehow confounded in his idea certain immigrations 
from South and North Britain to Erin, spoken of in the chronicle of 
Richard of Cirencester, with his invasions of that country by the Firbolg 
and Tuatha de Danaans. 

In the history of Armenia by Moses Choronensis we find the Bolgi or 
Bolo under the name of Acrad. This in Arabic is the plural of Curd, i.e., 
the Curdi of Curdistan ; and in the Persian History they are said to have 
descended the Euphrates and Tigris and settled in Cutha or Nabatha 
-if Babylon, that is, says de Herbelot, about the Nabathean Fens, and 
here they were distinguished by the name of Zohak. " Some," says 
■the same author, "have thought they were originally Chaldaeans, the 
Cashdanim of the Hebrews and Arabs." The Nabathean Fens are said to 
have been called Cutha and an ancient king of Babylon is there said to 
have cut many taps or canals from the Euphrates into the Paludes, and 
from thence into the Tigris. In the Irish Cuth or Cuith is a canal, a 
ditch, foss, cut, or tap, and this Chaldaean and Irish Cuth is in the Arabic 
Cush. " Araraphel," says Dr. Hyde, Gen. Ch. xiv., "was king of 
Shinaar, not in Chaldaea or Babylon, but Shinaar of Mesopotamia," now 
written Sinjar, the Singara of Ptolemy. Here then we have a Shinaar in 
the Asiatic Mesipotamia, and a Shinaar in Meroe, the iEthopic Mesi- 
potamia, as well as a Shinaar in Chaldaea or Babylon. 

The Armenians have been wont annually to celebrate their Mion, 
Armion or Breith, i.e., their Covenant of God with mankind, and hence 
Ar-mion-ia, the name of their country, literally meaus the ' Country of 
the Mountain of the Covenant.' 

Ararat is a Scythian name for the Mountain of the Ship, for Art or 
Aorth or Arth is a ship and Ar or Aurth a mountain. And so Arthur is 
for Arth-fhear and means a ship-man, a sailor, meaning thus the same as 
Feargus. The Irish have their king Cormac mac Art, the latter being for 
Arthur, which may- or not have been the name by winch the father of this 
Cormac was called ; but I find him entered in the history as Fergus, 
although he is said to have had two brothers also named Fergus. The 
father of this Fergus is entered by Keating as Finchadh, by Flaherty as 
Imchadh, his grandfather's name, according to the latter, being Finchadh. 
As to the name of the father of Fergus, it is likely Keating was the more 
correct, for Finchadh might be regarded as a transposition of Eochaidh 
Finn, as well as Imchadh of that of the father of Eochaidh Finn, namely, 
Eochan, i.e., Conn or Conair, called also Feidhlimidh Rechtmhar. And 
Oghamhan, put down by both as father of Finchadh is simply a slight 



102 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY 

mystification of Eochaidh, the proper name of Moghallamh, the father 
of our Conair, and son of Fiachaidh Findalaidh. De "Wyntoun appears in 
his Tabulation to have understood his Carbri Righada as the historical 
Conn Cead-Cathach as well as the Irish in their making Cormac, " grand- 
son of Conn." I suppose the said Conn to have been father of Righada. 

One author says that the Phoenecian Hercules was called Melicartus, i.e., 
Melek-Arth, the king of the ship, the ship-master. It is thought probable 
that Ararat was originally Avrat, the letter Vau being mistaken by copyists 
for r, from its form in the Hebrew being nearly the same. 

In ch. li. v, 27 of his Book, the Prophet Jeremiah records the Mountain 
of the Ark of the Covenant as follows : " Set up the standard in the land ; 
blow the trumpet among the nations (Goim) ; prepare the nations against 
her; call together against her the Kingdoms of Ararat, Mini and 
Aschenaz." For the Heb. Mini the Chaldee has Har-Mini, the Mount of 
the Covenant. Referring to the Egyptian Monuments Brugsch Bey says : 
•' The inscriptions do not mention one syllable about the Israelites." 
(Egypt under the Pharaohs, vol. II. p. 99.) And at p. 210 of the same 
volume he says: " And as to the mention of the Fenekhe (Phoenicians) 
I have a presentiment that we shall one day discover their most intimate 
relationship with the Jews." 

Extract from Richardson's dissertations on the languages, etc., of the 
Eastern Nations, p. 47: 

"The reigning families of Persia, previous to the Arabian conquest, are 
comprehended, by their historians, under four dynasties or families ; the 
the Pishdadians, the Kaianians, the Askanians and the Sassanians. The 
Persians, like other people, have assumed the privilege of romancing on 
the early periods of society. The first dynasty is, in consequence, em- 
barrassed by fabling. Their most ancient princes are chiefly celebrated 
for their victories over the Demons and Genii, called Dives ; and some 
have reigns assigned to them of 800 or 1000 years. Amidst such fictions, 
however, there is apparently some truth. Those monarchs probably did 
reign though poetic fancy may have ascribed to them ages and adventures, 
which the laws of nature reject. We dispute not the existence of our 
English Arthur though we believe not in the Giants and Magic of Geoffrey 
of Monmouth. The Dives may have been savage neighbors conquered by 
the Pishdadian Kings and magnified b}^ tradition as being of a supernatural 
species. The Gods, the Titans and the heroes cf the Greeks ; the Giants, 
the Savages and the monsters of Gothic romance, seem all to have orig- 
inated from similar principles ; from the wild irregularity of fancy and that 
admiration of the marvelous, which, in various degrees, runs through the 
legends of every darker period of the history of mankind. The longevity, 
at the same time, ascribed to this race of monarchs, may either have been 
founded on some imperfect antediluvian idea, or may be resolved by sup- 
posing families instead of individuals; and that the Caiumars, the Gliem- 
shids and the Feridouns of the East were merely successions of princes, 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 103 

bearing one common surname, like the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies and the 
Caesars of the West. 

With the second dynasty a more probable system of history seems to 
commence; yet still the era of Kaicobad, the founder of this house, can 
not be precisely fixed. Though historians differ, however, with regard to 
the chronology of this prince in one point which may lead us to ascertain 
it with tolerable accuracy, they appear in general to be unanimous. 
Darab, the younger, dethroned by Alexander, is called the 9th sov- 
ereign of this line. He was assassinated about 300 years B. C. If 30 
years are allowed, therefore, as the medium of each reign or 270 for the 
nine kings, Kaicobad's sovereignty may possibly have commenced about 
600 years before our era, which will comprehend the whole of that period 
of Persian history for which we are indebted to the Greeks. Sir I. New- 
ton, it may be objected, with other chronologists, have allowed but 20 
years to a reign and made that the universal standard for all nations ; but, 
with submission to those learned men, nothing carries with it a stronger 
tendency to unhinge all chronology than such an unmodified system. 

The Kaianan dynasty being supposed then to commence nearly about 
600 years before the birth of our Lord this brings us to the reign of that 
King of the Medo-Persians, called by the Greeks Cyuxeres, which, accord 
ing to Sir I. Newton's conjecture is supposed to have begun in the year 
Nabonassar 137 (about C10 before Christ). From this period till the 
Macedonian conquest we have, therefore, the history of the Persians as 
given us by the Greeks ; and the history of the Persians as written by 
themselves. Between those classes of writers we might naturally expect 
some difference«of facts ; but we should as naturally look for a few great 
lines, which might mark some similarity of story, yet from every research 
which I have had an opportunity to make, there seems to be nearly as 
much resemblance between the annals of England and Japan as between 
the European and Asiatic relations of the same empire. The names and 
numbers of their Kings have no analogy ; and in regard to the most 
splendid facts of the Greek historians the Persians are entirely silent. We 
have no mention of the Great Cyrus nor of any King of Persia, who in the 
events of his reign can apparently be forced into a similitude. We have 
no Croesus, King of Lydia ; not a syllable of Cambyses or of his frantic 
expedition against the Ethiopians. Smerdis Magus and the succession of 
Darius, the son of Hystaspes, by the neighing of his horse, are to the 
Persians circumstances equally unknown as the numerous assassinations 
recorded by the Greeks. Not a vestige is at the same time to be dis- 
covered of the famous battle of Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Platea 
or Mycale ; nor of that prodigious force which Xerses led out of the 
Persian Empire to overwhelm the States of Greece. Minutely attentive as 
the Persian historians are to their numerous wars with the Kings of Touran 
or Scythia ; and recording with the same impartiality whatever might 
tarnish as well as aggrandize the reputation of their country, we can, 



104 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORT. 

with little pretense to reason, suppose that they should have been silent 
on events of such magnitude ; had any record remained of their existence 
or the faintest tradition commemorated their consequences." 

From this learned Orientalist's researches it is claimed we have two 
points established in favor of the Irish records, first that they were not 
copied by Irish monks, either from Greek or Latin authors, for no trans- 
action of the Grecians at this period, as asserted by their writers, appear 
in the Irish history ; secondly, it corresponds so much with the Persian 
history that it must have been brought with them from Asia and in point 
of time there is a great coincidence. We also learn from these researches 
that some writers of national history, in early times, made it a point not 
only to mystify, but to directly falsify in order to satisfy their national 
vanity: and that this custom of mystifying and falsifying history was 
not peculiar to any one nation, but was in a greater or less degree com- 
mon to all. Those Irish annals informs us that Mogh Nuadhat or Nuadhar 
was the leader of this colony into Erinn, which although we translate 
Ireland, some think refers to Iran of Persia; and they reckon this event 
to have taken place Anno Mundi 3303, or, as they think, about 705 years 
B. C. Whether this event be taken as referring to the real Milesian in- 
vasion of Ireland or to some invasion of the Asiatic Iran from Touran, 
the time given for it may be distant]}' approximative. Rome was founded 
about 747-753 B. C, which must have been close to the time of our 
Milesian invasion. 

Gushtash, that is, the model Labradh Longsech, or horse-eared prince, 
is proved by Dr. Hyde to have been the Darius Hytaspes of the Greeks ; 
and he concludes his time to have been about 519 B. C. A person would 
be apt to think, whether or not there were anything in it. that the mentionof 
horse-eared prince in connection with Labhradh would have been designed 
to indicate his descent from the Asiatic ^Ethiopians, who inhabited the dis- 
tricts of Caramania and Gedrosio, on the East of the Erythrian Sea, as 
Herodotus states that those people were accustomed to adorn themselves 
with a horse's ears. They appear to have been the Scythians who in early 
times emigrated to India from Aria. 

The Touranians are, in the Irish history, frequently called Frange or 
Farange. The Arabs always call them Faranagh. The English translator 
of Keating will have this to be France, whence he has his Labradh 
Longsech bring an army into Ireland. He confesses however, that some 
say the Frange, to which Labradh went, was Armenia. 

" The Pelasgi (sa\ s the authors of Histoire de l'origine des langues de 
cest Universe) must be allowed to have been one of the most ancient 
nations in the world, and, as appears from their colonies in the earliest 
times, very numerous and powerful. With regard to their origin the 
learned are not agreed. Some make them the descendants of Peleg, who 
have very probable arguments on their side ; others deduce them from the 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 105 

Canaanites and Phoenicians and others suppose them to have been of a 
Celtic original." 

But this all amounts to the same thing ; for Peleg, which evidently is a 
form of Bealg or Bolg, is in the list of the ancestors of Abraham, who 
himself was of Chaldean origin, having emigrated from Ur of the Chaldees 
to Palestine. The Phoenicians (so-called by the Greeks) emigrated 
to Palestine from Chaldaea and from the coast of the Erythrian 
Sea and the name of the race in Palestine, as expressed in the Egyptian 
language, was Chal, Chaldaea being simply the dae or country of 
the Chal or so-called Phoenicians. Moreover, the Celtai were that branch 
of the Arians, called Scolotai, Sacai orSythians from whom the Chaldaeans 
were descended. The place of Peleg in the list of the ancestors of Abra- 
ham would indicate a considerable antiquity. 

In looking after the origin of the family name MacHeth, which I may 
s ay is an equivalent for MacDuff, I found the Gaelic name Seach, or 
Seachan or Seaghan orSeachlan to be for Alexander, i.e., Al-Sheach-dhair. 
(See vol. III., Vail. Coll. Preface, p. xxxvii.) Persic Sikender, Alexan- 
der, Sikender Name, the Book of the life of Alexander, the Great. Aineh 
Iskender, Mirror of Alexander, which means the same. The name 
MacHeth, therefore, of which so many historians have sought the origin, 
arose from the Gaelic form of the name Alexander, as Aenghus MacSheagh 
or MacSheathagh, would be their Aeneas McHeth, pronounced MacHay 
or MacCay. 

Usue, the form de Wyntoun gives for Ughan, in the case of Ughan Mor, 
causes me to think lie may have had in mind for it the form Ith, which is 
for Iuth, a form which had as one of its significations in English " Use " 
or as a verb "to use," Latin Utor, root Ut, doubtless for Iudh or Aedh. 
(See Edward Lhuyd's Archaeologica Britannica, in which he compares in 
parallel Lexicons the Ancient languages of the British Isles). I have no 
doubt this was the original form of the name Jute, of that race, for ex- 
ample, which came into South Britain with the Saxons from Northern 
Europe and settled in Kent (Latin Cantium, Gaelic Cann or Conn), a 
name which, perhaps, they gave to the country after their own clan's 
designation. (See Humphrey Lhuyd's Cambria). Iuth and Iuthan and 
Iughan are used for each other, as Iuchair for Eochair, a key, and Iughan 
for Eoghan, a man's name; Iudh for Aedh, a day, i.e., the circle of the 
sun, the zodiac, the Sun ; and so after Mac, Clan or the like, the an would 
generally he added as sign of the genitive and we would have Maclughan, 
or MacAedhan or MacEoghan, etc., all pronounced MacConn. The clan 
Ith is, thus, the clan Conn or Conair. 

Speaking of the Irish Clan Mac Conmara, "of the line of Emhir," 
Keating (in Preface, p. xxxii. ), says " the tribe name of that famity is 
Aedh," and MacAedhan, would, as we see, be pronounced MacCun. Now, 
Conmara is another form for Morgann, or Morcunn, and I find in our history 



106 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC IIISTOKY. 

that among the Scotch the Clan Morgann is Clan Aedh, and Morganu, No. 
29 of our list, is turned by the historians into Constantine, which is proper. 
Conmhara is, perhaps, for an ancient genitive form of Emhir, i.e., for 
Caenmharaigh or Cunmhara, genitive of nominative Caedhmhuir, which 
means chief of the sea, just as Morgann. Aedh, with C prefixed Caedh, is 
for Caedhan, Ceann or Conn. 

According to the Irish list, as mentioned before, their Duach Dalta 
Deaghaidh descends from Emhir, brother of Eramhan, and is made ninth 
in descent from their Rechtaidh Righdhearg, whom they make contempo- 
rary of Ughan mor. It has been shown that the line of Rudhri mor is car- 
ried back in Keating just for ten generations, to Ughan mor. And in fact 
the lines of the Bolgai, the Tuatha de Danaans, etc., appear to have cen- 
tered here, as shown above. The Irish historians may have had in mind 
that the line of the ancestors of their Duach centered here also. But that 
line of Emhir, so-called, tells its own story to any one who takes pains to 
examine it chronologically and by comparison with the line of MacConn, 
as mentioned before, in my speaking of O'Flaherty's difficulty with it. 

The beginning of the investigation into the subject as to who that 
Mac Beth was, who is mentioned in the history in connection with 
the death of Duncan, King of Scotland, would be apt to lead one 
to suppose that said MacBeth was MaeBoidhe, son of Maelbrighdi, 
whose son, as we have noticed before from the Annals of Ulster, 
had been put to death by Malcolm II. ; that is, the investigator 
would be apt to hastily conclude that said MaeBoidhe had com- 
passed or connived at the death of Duncan, the son of Malcolm, in 
retaliation for the death of his own son by the father of Duncan. 
But further investigation shows that such conclusion would not be 
justified by the circumstances of the case. 

Andrew de Wyntoun, in his Oryginale Cronvkil of Scotland, vol. 
I, p. 216, speaking of the MacBeth who slew Duncan in 1040 A. 
D., calls him " Syster Sowne "* of Duncan ; that is, his nephew, 
which shows that he did not have in mind, as that person, Mae- 
Boidhe, the son of Kenneth, who was Duncan's uncle. Speaking 
on the same page in relation to his MacBeth, he says : — 

For til his eme he was rycht fals, 
Dat browcht him up rycht tenderly. 

Which, translated, is : — 

For to his uncle he proved right false, 
Who hud brought him up right tenderly. 



* This shows who Duncan was: If, as according to Fordan and the mystifiers, Duncan had 
been son to a sister of Thorflu's mother, i.e., to another daughter of Malcolm II, by one Crinan 
then would Duncan and Thorlin have been first cousins. 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 107 

This, therefore, in the mind of do Wyntoun, did not refer to an 
uncle of Duncan, as MacBoidhe, brother to Malcolm II. ; but to Dun- 
can's nephew, namely, to Thorfin, the sun of Bethach, daughter of 
Malcolm II., by Sigurd, the Norwegian earl of Orkney, who doubt- 
less was called by the Scots, as an endearing appellation, Mac- 
Bethaigh after his mother ; that is, his full name to the Scots would 
be Thorfin MacBethaigh, after the name of the Scottish princess, 
who was his mother, or Thorfin or even MacBethaigh Mac Fin- 
laoich, that is, Thorfin the son of the Norwegian, as the Scots called 
Norway Finlochland, and, as a matter of course, a Norwegian 
would be with them Finlaoch. But by the Norwegians he would 
be called Thorfin, the son of Sigurd. It is not at all likely that 
MacBoidhe, the sou of Malbrighdi, lived till 105 7, his brother, 
Malcolm, having died in 1031, at which time Thorfin, his grandson 
by his daughter, was about 2(i years of age, he having been born, 
as according to the deductions of Skene, in 1008-9, and been put 
into the hands of his maternal grandfather, to be brought up, upon 
the death of his father Sigurd in 1014. 

" When Sigurd went on his expedition to Ireland, " says Skene, 
" which ended so fatally for him, lie had sent his son Thorfin by his 
second wife, the daughter of Malcolm, king of the Scots, to his 
grandfather; and, though he was only five years old at his father's 
death, the king of the Scots bestowed Caithness and Sutherland 
upon him with the title of Earl and gave him men to rule the do- 
main along with him." This, which is the bringing up that de 
Wyntoun reters to, Skene gives in Celt, Scot. I, 389, as from the 
Orkneyinga Saga and Collect, de Rebus Albanicis, p. 340. 

When Malcolm II. died and Duncan succeeded him, the latter 
"seems to have considered," says Skene, " that Thorfin, having 
become Earl of Orkney, he might resume possession of Caithness 
or, at least, demand tribute from it. Thorfin, on the other hand, 
considered that it was his inheritance from King Malcolm, through 
his mother, and that he had obtained it before Duncan inherited the 
kingdom. Thus, says the Saga, they became open enemies and 
made war on each other." In speaking of the issue of the final 
battle of this war, in p. 403 of the same vol., the Saga says : " King 
Duncan then brought forward his standard against Earl Thorfin and 
the fiercest struggle took place between the Scots and the Norweg- 
ians; but," says the Saga, " it ended in the flight of the king and 
some say he was slain. Earl Thorfin then drove the fugitives before 



108 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

him through Scotland and laid the land subject to him wherever 
he went all the way south to Fife." 

If it were true, as some have said according to the foregoing, 
that Duncan was slain in this battle or immediately consequent there- 
upon, then, all the circumstances considered, it is reasonable to 
charge his death to the account of his nephew, Thorfin, whether or 
not the latter was himself the slayer. It is evident that Duncan's 
death happened in or near the time of this battle. Thorfin having 
been the real king of Scotland for 17 years after this date, except- 
ing that part of Scotland extending from the northern boundary of 
Fife to the English border, which remained, with Cumbria, in the 
possession of the children of Duncan, was, of course, the Mac- 
Bethaigh, who reigned for that interval of 17 years, and who was 
conquered in 1057 by Malcolm Ceanmor, the son of Duncan, with 
the help of the Augles. 

One authority, Marianus Scotus, tells us that in 1050 MacBeth- 
aigh visited Koine, paid his respects to the pope and distributed 
much money among the poor at Rome ; but, according to the Saga 
(Anderson's edition, p. 43), Thorfin visited Rome in that same year 
" and saw the pope, from whom he obtai ned absolution for all his 
sins." "This," says Skene, "is either another instance of the 
confusion of Thorfin with MacBeth or they went to Rome together 
for the same purpose." Celt. Scot. I, p. 407, Note. 

Under the head of grants made to religious institutions by King 
MacBethaigh, is the following in the Chronicle of Maibros, p. 
114, etc:. — 

" Cum summa veneratione et devotione Mackbeth rex contulit Deo 
et Sancto Servano de Lochlevyn et hermitis ibidem Deo Servien- 
tibus Bolgyne, filii Torfiny, cum oinni libertate et sine onere exer- 
citus regis et filii ejus, vel vicecomitis, et sine exactione alicujus sed 
oaritatis intuitu et orationum suffrages." of which the translation 
is as follows : — 

" With the profoundest devotion and veneration King MacBeth 
bestowed upon God and St. Servanus of Lochlevin and upon the 
hermits now there serving God, Bolgyne, presently pertaining to 
the son of Thorfin, with all liberty and without burden from the 
army of the king and of his son or lieutenant, and without exaction 
of any kind; but for the purpose of the oversight of charity and 
religious instruction." The son of Thorfin being here named in 
the dominions of MacBeth, and seemingly as his viceroy in a cer- 



ERIN AND NORTH BRITAIN. 109 

tain district of the country, might fairly be understood as indicating 
that the same man was known by the two appellations of MacBeth- 
aigh and Thorfin. 

" On the death of Alex. III., in 1285, Bruce and Baliol, descend- 
ants in the female line from David, a brother of Malcolm IV., 
appeared as competitors for the crown and supported on each side 
by a considerable party in the kingdom. Edward I. of England, 
being chosen umpire in the contest, arrogated to himself in that 
capacity the feudal sovereignty of Scotland, and compelled all of 
its thanes to swear allegiance to him as their feudal sovereign. 
This done he adjudged the crown to John Baliol, but as his own 
feudatory. Baliol, soon after, renouncing his allegiance, Edward 
again invaded Scotland and caused his abdication in favor of him- 
self. Another defender of the country's liberties soon arose in the 
person of Win. Wallace, who, though placed in difficult circum- 
stances, gamed many remarkable successes over Edward's forces 
until finally betrayed into the hands of Edward, he was put to 
death with great cruelty. Now, again, Bruce appeared as champion 
and made such headway against his enemies that he was eventually 
crowned king of Scotland in 1306 A. D. On his death in 1329, 
while his son David was a minor, Edward Baliol, the son of the 
above John, by the help of the English became king, but soon 
found himself displaced by young David Bruce, who, by the help 
of his friends in Scotland and France, attained to the throne. On 
his death in 1370, in 86 years after the death of Alex. III., the 
crown passed to Robert, the Steward." Thus it is in the history 
which is largely allegorical. The name Steward at once suggests 
this. The histories make the office of the "great Steward of 
Scotland " to have been hereditary in the family of Robert II., the 
first of the house of Steward, so called, for several generations be- 
fore his time. But it was hereditary in that family in the sense of 
their being the regular line of the kings of Scotland. The great 
Steward of Scotland was the King himself, and Robert II., the first 
of the house of Steward, so called, was son of Alexander III., so 
that it is only on paper the regular line of Gaelic kings ceases with 
Alexander III. That line was continued on in Scotland and gov- 
erned England in the persons of its kings James I. and II., Charles 
I. and II., and its queen Ann. There may possibly at this period 
have been claims on the Scottish Kingdom by some Normans of 
South Britain, who were in descent from some of its kings ; but if 



110 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

.it this time the throne of Scotland was occupied by any one who 
was not of the family of its legal line of kings it could only have 
been for a comparatively short period. The " King Robert Bruce" 
whose death, in his old age, is entered by the histories in 1329, is 
represented as grandson of the Bruce, who in 1285 was contestant 
with Baliol for the crown. What a number of generations (names) 
in such a short time ! The historical connection under the names 
Bruce, Baliol, etc., is largely allegorical, and this Robert II., the 
first of the so called Steward house, was the actual Bruce. De 
Bruis or " of the Brush," could only have been an epithet in addi- 
tion to the real name of the man. Some might think Robert, called 
the second, but really the first, to have been grandson on his 
mother's side to old Bruce, " the claimant," but it is as likely he 
was in this manner grandson to MacDonald, " laird of the Isles," 
or to some other man, while being son to Alexander III. As to 
Robert III. Burton says: "John was the name given to him at 
his baptism," — " but this appellation being in disrepute on account 
of having been borne by John Baliol he adopted the popular name 
Robert, which had been borne by Bruce." In the genealogies they 
give to James I., the name Gilchrist, i.e., Servant of Christ. 
James II., they have Seach, which doubtless was his real name, as 
our Shaws of Sauchie are sprung from his son., James III., said in 
the history to have been killed in the battle of Sauchie Burn. 

My researches since my last issue (it is now 1888 A. D.) have 
enabled me to give the continuation of the genealogical list, from 
Ith, No. 75, the point to which we got before. This will carry the 
line back to such a distance as to indicate clearly for a long period 
and from an early date the course of the history. And then I will 
give the line back from Ith so as to include James III., the last king 
of Scotland in the genealogy given, as confirmatory of the correct- 
ness of what I gave before and illustrative of other points. And 
in reference to this whole matter I may say that Ughan mor, other- 
wise called Ith, the first of this line of men who dominated in Erin, 
had a son Lughaidh or Laeghaidh, but whose name is put down in 
the list of kings as Laeghair; and that from this Lughaid Mac- 
Ughan, pronounced Luie or Laerie MacConn, have descended the 
kings of Erin whether under the name of Eremon (Leinster), of 
Ebher (for Munster and Connaught), or of Irr (for Ulster and 
Con naught) ; for all these were honorary names given in the his- 
tories to kings who were exactly of the same line of descent, there 



GENEALOGY. 



Ill 



being only one line for the island, father to son, etc., after the 
arrival of said Ith or Ughan. 

2. In the 26th name of the list, counting down, beginning with 
Ughan mor, we meet with another Lughaidh MacUghan, called 
also Lughaidh MacConn ; who is said to have wrested the govern- 
ment out of the power of his brother Eocbaidh, called Carbri 
Kighada, by means of a foreign force he introduced to the island 
and reigned for 30, or, as some say, for 50 years. The line of 
kings, however, who came after him, both for Erin and North 
Britain were of descent from his brother, Carbri Righada. It is to 
le borne in mind, then, that the list given of the line of the 
ancestors of this 2nd Lughaidh MacConn is the list proper of the 
kings of Erin before him; and that the list of the kings of Erin 
after him is in descent from his father Eoghan mor, alias Conn of 
the 100 battles, through his brother Eochaidh Finn, alias Carbri 
Righada. 

3. From this Carbri Righfhada to Fergus, the son of Ere, these 
two exclusive, there are seven in succession, and from the latter to 
James III., the last king in the list given, in Scotland, inclusive, 
there are 30, in succession, more. 



O '" • 



Ith, i.e., Bili, i.e., Inghan mor, i.e., Miledh Espain, No. 
75, son of 



a 


Breoghan, son of, 
Bratha, son of, 


76. 
77. 


ci 






«r=s 


Degatha, son of, 


78. 


3 3 

a fcc 


Arcadh, son of, 


79. 


r i< 


Allod, son of, 


80. 


2"S 


Nuadha, son of, 


81. 


Ninual, son of, 


82. 


£ : 

c a 


Febric Glas, son of, 


83. 



5 p5 



Adnamhan Finn, son of, 84. 
Eber Glun Finn, son of, 85. 
Lamh Finn, son of, 86. 



From these conquerors of Gaethulia 
are derived, in male line, the Goths, 
from whom, in the same way, are 
the Germans, 



112 



CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 



•a o « a a 
c — — o o 
*2~A - 



95; 



-— « S-r ■ 

— - SiS a 

- _ r-.-* > a 

J30C = =s a 



Adnoin, son of, 87. 

T;ith, son of, 88. 

Eoghamhan, son of, 89. 

Beoghamhan, son of, 90. 

Eber Scot, son of, 91. 

Sru, son of, 92. 



fI|s|.lo, Esru, son of, 

j=~r.-~~Z'Q Gaedhal, son of, 



93. 
94. 



la 



= ;c 
2~ 



.2 6 



Mernra, i.e., Sethar, i.e., Nial, son of, 95. 

Sethos, son of, 96. 

Amenophis, son of, 97. 

Sesotris, son of, 98. 

Scbaigbre, son of, 99. 

Sesochris, son of, 100. 

Nefercheres, son of, 101. 

Cheres, son of, 102. 

Sethenes, son of, 103. 

Talas, son of, 104. 

Binothris, son of, 105. 

Kaiecbos, son of, 106. 

Bethus, son of, 107. 

Semempsis, son of, 108. 

Miebidos, son of, 109. 

Usapbaidos, son of, 110. 

Venephes, son of, 111. 

Kenchenes, son of, 112. 

Athotis, son of, 113. 

Aahmes, i.e., James, i.e., Jacob, i.e., Menes, son of, 114. 

Up to this point tbe list is chronologically historical. 



o « u o a. 
- o a ^ bo 

* x ~ " • 

to uO;a 
F C - O ft^ 



= 5 gs 3'S 

O cs s< a 



Isaac, 

Abram, 

Terah, 

Nachor, 

Serug, 

Reu, 

Peleg, 

Eber or Abr-am, 

Salah, 

Arphaxed, 



For seven places here between 
Salah and Isaac there are to be 
reckoned at least 47 ordinary gen- 
erations ; for, in the history of 
Babylon, the place of Nimrod, the 
son of Cush, corresponds to that 
of Salah, the son of Arpachshad, 
in this list. Between Nimrod, 



GENEALOGIES. 



113 



whom they reckon their first king 
after the Flood, and the Median 
conquest of Babylon in 2234 B. C. 
(i.e., about one century before 
Menes), there intervened 86 
reigns, which, all reckoned at the 
average reign of 18 years, as, ac- 
cording to Sir I. Newton's deduc- 
tion, gives 1566 years, and this 
number divided by 33^ years, the 
ordinary length of a generation, 
gives almost 47 generations. 
(87x18=1566-^33^=47 almost.) 
The foregoing statement is based upon the history of Babylon as 
connected with Gen. X, 7-10, in which last Nimrod might appear 
to be the sixth son of Gush. But some have thought it meant him 
to have been sixth in descent from Cush, a supposition which that 
list referred to before, that traces the genealogy of the Tuatha de 
Danaan back to Cush might be thought to support : 



ma 

IT-— • 



•a o— o g 



3 £.3 

M ~ . 6 

S § o E 



Schem, 
Noah, 



Lamech, 
Methuselah, 
Mehujael, 
Irad, 
Enoch, 
Cainan, 
Schaedhamh 
God. 



I 



M 






Noah 


•° s o S 


Cham 


BZ b3 


Chus 


aid 
leas 
brai 
Du 


Seba 


3-bS • 


Havilah 


S "3 © <^ 


Sabtah 


~~ -n — 
aj '■' •»-> c 

> i - w> 


Raamah 
Sabteckah 


MS. 

yean 
>e ii 
lity 




c o ~ •= 


Nimrod 


<£ 3h 



Noah 

Cham 

Chus 

Fedel 

Pelest 

Ephice 

Uccat 

Sadhal 

Sopuirneach 



If now, we may understand the five names enclosed in brackets 
in the two columns to be simply dialectic representations, if not 
variations of each other, that is, to stand forthe same men respect- 
ively, then we shall hardly find the last name to present any diffi- 
culty to our identification of the two lists; for, in the old Gaelic, 
Sopuirneach (so, good, puir, a man, neach, a horse) means the 
mighty hunter, literally " the good horseman," the same which the 
word means also in the old Persian ; and this is an epithet by which 
Nimrod was well known in sacred and profane history. 

But the principal point here to observe is that this discovery 

8— d 



114 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

might seem fairly to imply that each name in the list from Jacob 
to Shem, both inclusive, represented on an average, seven succes- 
sive generations. For, if we multiply the 8(5 generations by an 
average reign of 19 years, which my researches into ancient history 
makes at least as near the fact as Sir I. Newton's 18, we shall get 
1634 years, which divided by 33^ gives a small fraction over 49 
generations as a quotient; and we have seen above that the 86 
reigns multiplied by an 18 years' average gives about 47 genera- 
tions for seven names. Consequently the 12 names from Jacob to 
Shem the latter included, would, on this basis, equal 84 successive 
generations of men between Jacob and the Flood, ( 12 X7 = 84)- 
Would the patriarchs under consideration have lived on the 
average seven times the average length of human life, now? 
Moreover, and secondly, I may observe that the name Arphaxad, 
spelled Arpachshad, i.e., Arpach-Seheth, in the original, is a name 
arising to the Cushites from local circumstances ; for Cush is the 
Baylonian Cuth, which is Scuth or Scheth; and these people attained 
the name Arpach-Seheth from their inhabiting, in a very early age, 
before their invasion of the Nile's or even Euphrates' valley, the 
mountain of Arpachitis, situated in Kurdistan. Kurd is equivalent 
to the Gaelic Cadhair, a hero, a city. Cush, that is Cuth; that is 
Scuth; that is Scheth or Schaeth; that is Aeth,* which means in 
Egyptian a heart, for which Latin Cor, root Cord, which is Kurd. 
The Cushites or ^Ethiopians are originally Asiatics, as implied in the 
Bibical story of the Flood, the Babel and the migrations thereafter, 
who in progress of time descended from their Scythic mountains 
and stepps, settled the valleys of the Tigris, the Euphrates and the 
Nile, the two Mesopotamias of Asia and of Africa, built Nineveh, 
Babylon, Thebes, Memphis, Saba, in Ethiopa, afterwards called 
Merog, etc. ; they are the Shemitea or Chemites. 

In explanation of the connection 1 make with the line of kings 
of ancient Egypt, I may say there is no doubt in my mind that 



* Aeria, Aethiopia and Aethia were formerly names of Egypt. In the old 
Egyptian, Ath or Aeth signified a heart and rib a pear, whence the Greeks likened 
that country to a J (delta). Says Horus Apollo: Esyptiis An, vel r ]Q est Cor; 
that is, in the language of the Egyptians Ath or Aeth is a word signifying a heart. 
The root of Cor is Cord, in which we see the form Curd for the name of the same 
people. By Ptolemies tables Athribis is in the centre of the nome of that name, 
whence it was calied Athrib-is or the heart of the pear: Cor-pyri quia in medio 
pyri. Hence Leo Africanus writes the name Errif or Alribh, the 1 and r being the 
same in Egyptian ; and in Scripture the name Rahab often occurs for Egypt. 



EGYPTIAN COLONIZATION. 115 

their Nial, who in their lists generally is made to be son of Phen- 
ius, but in one very old list I have seen is put down as son of 
Nionnual, (i.e., son of the child or children of Nial) is the ccle- 
hrated Neilos of the Egyptian lists, whose name some histories 
connect with the taking of Troy, but who lived over a century 
prior to the capture of that city. Herodotus calls him Proteus 
and connects him in his story with the Tynan quarters at Memphis. 
This man was great-grandson to Sesostris, which last died, accord- 
ing to Eratosthenes' reckoning, in 1461 B. C, which would leave 
his great-grandson to die about a century later. I, however, do not 
find that Old Tyre (Troy) was captured before 1262 B. C, which 
would be a century later still or two centuries after the death of 
Sesostris. In the time of this latter and his descendants down to 
the children of this man Egypt sent out many colonies. Of these 
i lie Athenians, the Lacedemonians or Spartans, the Colchians and 
Csiphtnrim of Palestine are not the least remarkable. Not only 
the Dorians and Ionians among the Greeks, but the Romans of the 
stock of iEneas are derived from the Egyptians, though, perhaps, 
not all from Sesostris. According to Eollin, Cecrops, an Egyptian, 
founded the kingdom of Athens in 1556 B. C, which, by Eratos- 
thenes' reckoning, would be the 5th year of Sesostris, at which 
time he was carrying on his campaigns beyond the borders of E°ypt. 
Would Cecrops (Sesar-ops) have been Sesostris or a kinsman of his 
whom he made his viceroy? Rollin also makes Gelanor, kino- of 
Argos in Peloponnessus, to have been dethroned and expelled his 
kingdom by Danaus, a brother of Sesostris ; but he makes the 
successor of this last in 1474 B. C. to have been Lynceus, the son 
of -ZEg} r ptus, i.e., Sesostris, which would indicate Danaus to have 
been only viceroy at Argos for his brother. There is no doubt 
Greece was conquered by Sesostris, that man of ships as well as 
cavalry, and that it was in his time well replenished with iEvgptian 
colonists. That the Macedonian family of Alexander the Great 
were descended in the male line from the ancient Egyptian kino-s 
there is no doubt. This family attained to the sovereignty in Mac- 
edonia, according to Rollin, in 794 B. C. And from the sou of 
that Neil we are treating of sprang the Goths. 

Their Gaedhal, son of Nial, the Irish history might appear to 
confound with a Gaedhal, son of Etheor, i.e., Sethir. But in doin°- 
this they are simply affecting to make two men on paper out of the 
one real man, for Nial is only another name for Etheor or Setheor, 



116 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

as we know in the history of king Neilos, but is entered in my 
Egyptian list as Mernra, "the beloved of Ra," and moreover the 
river Nile is also called Sethar, pronounced Schehor. 

In regard to the origination of the ancient Ogham Alphabet there 
are in an old book I have in my hand a series of questions and 
answers in the old Gaelic as follows: — 

1. " Who gave the sounds to the letters?" 

" The Chief of Thebes(Don Tebi). He studiously applied him- 
self to the Gaelic dialect when he was a chief in the jrovernmeut 
with Fenius alter he had left the school." 

2. " Who continued to take care of the school?" 

" Gaedhal, son of Ethor, son of Toe (Thoth) son of Barachain 
of Maratime (grecaibh) Seythia." 

3. " Where was Gaedhal born?" 
"In Egypt." 

4. "In what place?" 

"In the plain of Ucca, in the nome or division of Iare-Tair- 
righ, in the South of JEgypt (i.e., in Thebais). 

" In this way was this book begun, first by Fenius and after- 
wards by Maire, son of Nema continued by Gaedhal, son of Ethor, 
at the time all the children of Israel came into Egypt." 

5. " Who explained the Ogham and why was it so called." 

" Ogham was so called from Ogham, who was also named Soim. 
He explained the Ogham." 

Soim is Sem or Shein which signifying the Sun and being 
also the Scythian and Egyptian name of Hercules, much confusion 
has arisen from mistaking the philospher for the God and vice 
versa ; for Ogham is their Som with the Egyptian article, O, pre- 
fixed. This name Avas written Oughjom, Oudsom, etc., as the 
proper name Enephres was written by Eratosthenes Ouenephres, 
whence the Latins turned it into Venephres. 

They tell us Ogham is derived from guam, wisdom, and is also 
called Soim, otherwise Ceann faela or head of the learned. The 
two first are Egyptian names of Hercules, the latter the name of 
the inventor of letters according to the Chinese : It is probable that 
Ceann, in the expression Ceann Faola, is a variation of the Egypt, 
tian Chan or Chun, a name of Hercules, written also Seona by the 
Gaels of the British isles. To Chan or Shonie they were accus- 
tomed to offer the first fruits of their produce. 

The Egyptian name Ghjom is written with the letter Genga or 



HERCULES. 117 

Glangia and is sometimes pronounced hard as our g before a and 
u; sometimes soft as gh, sometimes as ds, dts, and sometimes as 
s, whence Jablonsky conjectures Ghjom and Som to be the same 
word 

Our Ogham or Soim is above called Don Thebi, lord or King of 
Thebes. The 26th King in Eratosthenes' list is called Semphru- 
krates, i.e., the strong King of Chera or Egypt: Our Nial or 
Mernra occupies the 26th place and is in some authorities called 
Seth necht, or the strong Schethir. Eusebius calls him " a very 
powerful man." Some of these may have been esteemed of great 
erudition, mighty in books, in the sciences and arts of their day, 
whence they would have given to them the name of Schem or 
Thoth? Som in the Hiberno-Scythian and giam in the Tibetan 
means wisdom, as Giam-jang, the God of Wisdom, the son of 
God. 

Our Ogham is said to have taken to wife a woman named Lam, a 
name which implies a wicked, foolish woman. Hence, Euripides says 
Lamia was an infamous name, dreadful to mortals. She is said in 
the history to have been Sci-an Oghma, the helpmate of Ogham: 
Secan or Sekenet, assistant, whence the Egyptian Schi and Schimi, 
a wife. 

But this helpmate was named Lam or Lamia, which signifies a 
horrid monster ; hence doubtless arose the Grecian story of Her- 
cules having begotten Scythes, the progenitor of the Scythians, in 
connection with a monster, half woman, half serpent ; a fable which, 
according to D'Ancarville (Recherch sur l'origine des Arts de la 
Greece) gained ground wherever the Scythians went from Scythia 
to Tartary, China and Japan. The passage is, of course, alle- 
gorical, the sense being that Ogham or Hercules, the God of elo- 
quence, espoused Suchan, or Kulam, that is, eloquence. "In the 
Egyptian speech Dsom, Som, or Chom, or Sem, id est, Hercules." 
Jablonsky, (Panth. Egypt, p. 186-7). The name Pammes, fifth 
in the list of Eratosthenes, read backward is put into the form 
Sem-phos. Jackson says that his name by interpretation is Hera- 
kleides, or a descendent of Hercules. He is also called Heraklcides 
by Eratosthenes ; and the 26th king before mentioned is called both 
by Eratosthenes and Jackson Hercules Harpokrates. This last 
form is equivalent to the Irish Aire-fo-creat, the first two parts 
signifying titles of dignity and honor, and creat signifies knowl- 
edge, science, wisdom, also a sieve, and writing, literary characters. 



118 CEITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

It is singular that in Horapollo the Egyptian symbol of wisdom, 
science and learning is a group of a sieve, a bull-rush (of which 
paper was made) and a stylus or pen: Great, doubtless, had the 
same signification in Egyptian, but phach-rat in the latter language 
and pocrat or boc-ract in Irish signifies lame in the foot; and from 
the double meaning of the Egyptian word Jablonsky observes that 
Harpocrates is always represented lame. All tbis would indicate 
that Egypt was for some ages a home of the Scythians. 

Under the 4th of the above questions wo find our Gaedhal was 
born in Ucca, in Upper Egypt, that is, in the Thebaid. It is, 
doubtless, from this local designation that Uchoreus, the 15th suc- 
cessor of Menes, as according to Diodorus, derived his name. 
" It appears also," says Valiancy, "that Niul's proper name was 
Etbor, who was the son of Toe or Taith, who was Fenius or Thath 
as we have proved," V. 70. In the time of Jeremiah, 600 B. C, 
Thebais was called Pathros, and had then a portion of Israelites 
inhabiting it. "The word that came to Jeremiah concerninsr all 
the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol 
and at Tahpanhes and at Noph and in the country of Pathros." 
Jer. Ixiv. 1. " Pathros, id est, in Thebaidem, quain prsecipue 
afflixerat Nebuchadnezzar." Bochart Phal. p. 276. 

Ucca signifies a ship and also a port, and so is a fair representa- 
tive for Theba, a ship, and Taph, a port, whence Tahapanes. The 
Thebaid had many ports as well as Piha-Chiroth. The Irish history 
informs us that their ancestor Niul (one of the meanings of which 
name is a son) a son of Phenius, erected a school at Piha-Chiroth 
and during his residence there his wife brought forth a son whose 
name was called Gaedhal. Sir I. Newton thought the Uchoreus 
of Diodorus to have been Maeris. But I see not how Newton 
could have made such a mistake, for that author has Uchoreus to 
be the immediate predecessor of ^Egyptus, after whom he makes 
Maeris to be 12th in succession. Uchoreus was the father of 
iEgyptus, that is, of Sesostris the Great, from whom Maeris was 
perhaps 5th generation in succession, but the 8th successor on the 
throne. I have, however, some reason to think the Maeris, or 
" beloved of Ra," who made the Lake of Maeris in the Fayoom, 
was the son and immediate successor of Sesostris, the No. 21 of my 
Egyptian list, and that he effected this vast work by means of the 
labor of prisoners of war. Under question 2 Gaedhal is called 
" Son of Ethor, Son of Thoth, Sou of Barachain." This gives us 



GENEALOGY. 



119 



to understand that Sethos or Sethir, the grandfather of Gaedhal, 
was known as a wise man, Toth, which is Phenius=Kneph and gives 
his great-grandfather as Barachain, i.e., Son of Achan, Chon or 
Sethos, which last was the name of Sesostris the Great. Barachain 
here refers to Amenophis, the son of Sesostris. Hence we have the 
following pairs of names equal to each other: — 

Sesostris 



Barachain son ot'= Amenophis son of 
Toth son of = Sethos, i.e., Phenius, son of 

Etheor son of =Mernra, i.e., Neil, son of 
Gaedhal son of = Gaedhal son of 

So far as to the list upward ; now we give it downward : — 



75. 
74. 
73. 

72. 

71. 
70. 
(19. 
68. 
67. 
66. 
65. 
64. 
63. 
62. 
61. 
60. 
59. 
58. 
57. 
56. 
55. 
54. 
63. 
52. 
61. 
50. 



TJghan mov, i.e., Eochaidh, 

Cobhthach, i.e., Cathau, 

Melgi, i.e., Ture, 

Ireo Gleo Fathach, i.e., Fyre Elmael, 

Connla Cru Chelg, i.e., Fyere Anroet, 

Olild Cas Fiacl, i.e., Fyere Roet, 

Eochakl Foltlethan,i.e., Fere Cataroet, 

Aenghus Tuirmac, i.e., Aengus Tuirmac, i.e., Eosamhan, i 

Fiach Fermhara, etc., i.e., Edhamhan 



i.e., 


Ith, 


i.e., Ughan mor. 


i.e. 


Lughaidh, 


i.e., Laeghair. 


i.e. 


Mai, 


i.e., Olild Ani. 


i.e. 


Edhamhan, 


. / Labhraidh- 
■' \Loiugsech. 


i.e., 


Lughaidh. 




i.e. 


Mathsin. 




i.e. 


Sin. 





Olild Eron, as in i.e., Erarahan, 

Feredhach, left hand column, i.e., Lughaidh, 

Forga, i.e., Fergus, i.e., Luchthani, 

Maen, i.e., Nuadhat Argthech, 

Arondel, i.e., Deargthlni, 

Sen, i.e., Deagn Dearg, 



i.e., Aengus Tuirmac. 
i.e., Euna Aighneacb. 
i.e., Labhradb. 
i.e., Blathacta. 
i.e., Beothacta. 
i.e., Eosamhan. 
i.e., Rioghuau Ruadh. 
i.e., Finlogha. 



Deaghaidh, i.e., DuachDalta Deaghaidh, i.e., Deagh Teamrach, i.e., Fintain. 
Uar, i.e., Eochaidh Garbh, i.e., Fer Ulni, i.e., Finn. 

Olild, i.e., Muredhach Muchna, i.e., Sithbolg, i.e., Eochaidh. 

Eoghan, i.e., Mogh Febis, i.e., Daire, i.e., Trifinevna. 

Edarscol i.e., Loch Mor, i.e., Edhbolg, i.e., Lughaidh. 

Conair, t.e., EuuaMuuchaein, i.e., Fur Ulni, i.e., Crimthan. 

Dairi, i.e., Deargthini, i.e., Daire, i.e., Feredhach. 

Carbri, i.e., Dearg, i.e., Lughaidh, i.e., Fiachaidh. 

Mogh Lamha, i.e., Mogh Niadh, i.e., Mac Niadh, t.e., Tuathal. 

Conair, i.e., Mogh Nuadhat, i.e., Conn, i.e., Feidhllmidh. 

Eochaidh, i.e., Carbri Righfhada. 

49. Fiachaidh Cathmhall, son of 

48. Eochaidh, son of 

47. Cruthluath, son of 

46. Fiachaid, son of 

46. Aengus Feart, son of 



120 



CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 



44. Eochaidh Muinreamhair, son of 

43. Ere, son of 

42. Fergus mor, son of 

41. Muiredhach, son of 

40. Eochaidh, son of 

39. Baedhan, son of 

38. Colman, son of 

37. Sneachthain, son of 

36. Fergus, sou of 

35. Feredhach, son of 

34. Ferchard III., son of 



Kenneth II., i.e., 
Gareth, i.e., 
Doire, i.e., 
Kenneth, i.e., 
Muredhach, i.e., 
Banquo, i.e., 



33. Ain Ceallach, son of 
32. Muiredhach, son of 
31. Cathmhail, son of 
30. Dornnald, son of 
29. Morg ;nd, son of 
28. Domnald, son of 
27. Ruidhri, son of 
26. Maelbrighdi, son of 



Sealbhach mc. 
Dungal mc. 
Gregair mac. 



Gillacomgain mc. 
Lu^haidh mc. 
Maelsnechthain mac. 



S Fleance, i.e., 25. Malcolm II., sou of 

£■ Walter, i.e., 24. Dunchadh, son of 

I Allan, i.e., 23. Malcolm III., son of 

!3 Walter, i.e., 22. Alexander I., son of 

S Allan, i.e., 21. David I., son of 

g Walter, i.e., 20. Henry, son of 

< Alexander, i.e., 19. William, son of 

James, i.e., 18. Alexander, II., son of 

1 Walter, i.e., 17. Alexander III., son of 
§ Robert II., i.e., 16. Aengus, son of 

2 15. John, son of 

W 14. Gilchrist, son of 

13. Shaw, son of 
12. James, son of 
11. Adam, son of 
Etc. See p. 2. 

THE SCYTHIANS. 

The Irish distinguish two dialects in their language, the bearla 
PJieni, and the bearla Thebi. In the first of these dialects the 
Brehon laws were written: it was the dialect of the learned, as 
distinguished from the others, and contained many Arabic, Sj'rian 
and other foreign terms among its home words. I may remark 
that Mr. Bryant, in his " Mythology," in classing Sesostris among 
the mythical personages, cannot have sufficiently considered our 
iEgyptus, who was at least as real a personage as Mr. Bryant was, 
and also undeniably the great Sesostris. I will, however, quote 
him, at some length, in regard to the Scythian races in general, on 
whose origin and progress he bestowed more extensive and particu- 



SCYTHIA. 121 

lar study than he did upon the history of ^3Egypt, which in its 
chronological order he must have found to be so exceedingly intri- 
cate and difficult to understand as to disgust him with the whole 
subject and to cause him to leave it with such a misapprehension 
of it as he may have thought was correct. 

Extracts from Bryant's Mythology (vol. IV, p. 83, etc.) upon 
the ancient Scythians: — 

" Scythia," says this erudite author, " is an unlimited, undefined 
term under which Grecian ignorance sheltered itself; — whatever 
was unknown northward was called Scythian, whereas it is notori- 
ous that this vast tract of country, called ignorantly Scythia, was 
possessed by people essentially differing from one another. Mith- 
ridates had twenty languages spoken within his territories, most of 
which were ignorantly deemed Scythic. According to Timosthenes 
there were no less than three hundred, which had each their partic- 
ular language; yet we speak of the Scythians collectively as of one 
family and one language and this the Titanian or Celtic. The true 
Seuthai or Scythians were undoubtedly a very learned and intelli- 
gent people ; but their origin is not to be looked for in the north 
of Asia and the desert of Tartary : their history was from another 
quarter ; for how can we suppose one uniform language to have 
been propagated from a part of the world where there was no such 
variety? The greater part of tliese nations, commonly styled 
Scythic, were barbarous to the last degree; there are no monu- 
ments or writings remaining nor any upon record, which can afford 
us the least idea of their being liberal or learned. 

" The Huns and Ovares were of these parts, who overran the 
empire in the fourth century; but their character had nothing in it 
favorable. Procopious says that they neither had letters nor would 
hear of them ; so that their children had no instruction. In short 
all the Tartarian nations of old seem to have been remarkably rude ; 
I say of old for there have been in later times remarkable in- 
stances to the contrary. 

"As we have been for so many ages amused with accounts of 
Scythia; and several learned moderns, taking advantage of that 
obscurity in which its history is involved, have spoken of it in a 
most unwarrantable manner and extended it to an unlimited de- 
gree ; it may not be unsatisfactory to inquire what the country was 
and from whence it received its name. 

" It is necessary, first of all, to take notice that there were many 



122 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

l-egions in different parts of the world so called. There was a pro- 
vince in Egypt* and another in Syriaf styled Scythia. There was 
also a Scythia in Asia Minor, upon the Thermodon above Galatia, 
where the Amazons were supposed to have resided. The country 
about Colchis and Iberia; also a great part of Thrace and Mcesia: 
and all the Tauric Chersonesus were styled Scythic. Lastly there 
was a country of this name far in the east of which little notice has 
been hitherto taken. It was situated in the great Indie ocean, and 
consisted of a widely extended region called Scythia Lymirica.J 

"But the Scythia spoken of by the ancient Greeks, and after 
them taken notice of by the Romans, consisted of those countries 
which lay upon the coast of the Euxine ; and especially those upon 
the north and northeastern parts of that sea. In short it was the 
region of Colchis ; and all that country at the foot of Mount Cau- 
casus as well as that upon the palus Maeotis and the Borysthenes, 
was of old esteemed Scythia. § 

" As the Greeks were ignorant of the part of the world which 
lay beyond, or had a very imperfect knowledge of it, they often 
comprehended this too under the same denomination. Many, how- 
ever, did not extend their ideas so far; but locked upon the coast 
above specified to have been the boundary northward of the habit- 
able world. Hence we read of extremum Tanaim, ultimam Scyth- 
iam and Caucasus, the boundary of the world. And although upon 
the return of the Greeks, who followed the fortunes of Cyrus, the 
younger, some insight might be supposed to have been gained into 
those parts ; yet it amounted to little in the end, as no correspond- 
ence was kept up and the navigation of the Bosphorus was seldom 
attempted. Heuce it happened that till the conquests of Lucullus 



* -/.odiaxij yiopa, Ptolemy, L. 4, c. 5, called also Macaria, which signifies a fer- 
tile, arable soil. 

t Arrian Peripl : It was in the district called Sacaia or the county of the Sacae — 
not far from Bethsan or Scythopolis, near Jerusalem. There was another Scythop- 
olis in Libya. Steph. ex Polyhistoire. Scythopolis in Palestine, which is said by 
some to have been situated eight miles from Jerusalem, ths Jews called Beth-shan, 
which the Christian Fathers translate the house or city of the enemy, claiming that 
these people were enemies to the Jews. But the circumstances of the case being 
considered in connection with the obscurity of the subject of their origin from 
Egypt might suggest to some that those Scythians were the Jews themselves and 
that their city, Jerusalem, was Beth-shan, meaning the ancient house or city? 

X Ptol. Geogr. L. 4, p. 121. 

§ Ace. to the Scholiast in Pindar they were of the Cuthites, or Scuthai ; descended 
from that body transplanted thither from Egypt by Sesostris. 



SCYTHIANS. 123 

and Pompeius magnus these countries were, to the northeast, the 
limits of geographical knowledge ; and even of these parts the ac- 
counts were very obscure and imperfect. Yet, however, unknown 
they had lain for ages, there was a time when the natives rendered 
themselves very respectable. For they carried on an extensive 
commerce and were superior in science to all the nations in their 
neighborhood; and this was long before the dawning of learning in 
Greece and before the constitution of many principalities into which 
the Hellenic state was divided. They went under Jhe names of the 
Colchians, Iberians, Cimmerians, Hyperborians, Alani. They 
got footing in Paphlagonia upon the Thermodon, where they were 
called Amazonians and Alarouians; also in Pieriaand Sithonia near 
Mount Hoemus in Thrace. These were properly Scythic nations; 
but the ancients, as I observed, often included under this name all 
that lay beyond them ; whatever was unknown even from the Croni- 
ian and Atlantic sea one way, to Mount Tabis and the Corean sea 
on the other. The ancient writers of Greece, says Strabo, used to 
include all the northern nations in general under the name of Scyth- 
ians and Celto-Scythians. 

" In this they went too far ; yet the Scythic nations were widely 
extended and to be met with on very different parts of the globe. 
As they are represented of the highest antiquity and of great power 
and as they are said to have subdued mighty kingdoms and to have 
claimed precedency even of the Egyptians, it is worth while to in- 
quire into the history of this wonderful people and to sift out the 
truth if possibly it might be attained. Let us then try to investi- 
gate the origin of the people denominated Scythians and explain 
the purport of their names: 

The solution of this intricate problem will prove of the highest 
importance as we shall thereby be able to clear up many dark 
circumstances in antiquity. 

" To me then it appears very manifest that what was termed by 
the Greeks Sxudca, Sxudtxa, was originally Cutha, Cuthai, Cuthica and 
related to the family of Chus. He was called by the Babylonians, 
and Chaldaeans Cuth and his posterity Cuthites and Cutheans. 
The countries where they at times settled were uniformly denomi- 
nated from them; but what was properly styled Cutha, the Greeks 
expressed with a sigma prefixed ; which, however trifling it may 
appear, has been attended with fatal consequences. 

" As the Scythic colonies were widely dispersed I will take them 



124 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

in their turn and show that they were all of them Cuthic ; that 
the people upon the Indus were of the same origin as those upon 
the Phases and Thermodon ; and that the natives of Boetica in 
Iberia were related to both. That the Boeotians and Athenians 
were in a great measure Cuthian I have endeavored already to 
prove, and what I term Cuthian was by them undoubtedly styled 
Scythian. 

" Epiphanius who has transmitted to us a most curious epitome 
of the whole Scythic history, gives them this appellation. Those 
nations, says he, which reach southward from that part of the 
world, where the two great continents of Europe and Asia incline 
to each other and are connected were universally styled Scythic, 
according to an appellation of long standing. They were of that 
family, who of old erected the great Tower (called Babel) and 
who built the city of Babylon,* by which we learn that the Scyth- 
ians were the Cuthites and come from Babylonia. 

" They were the Ellenic or Cuthite Shepherds who came into 
Egypt; many of them settled in Armenia and at Colchus and also 
upon the Pains Maeotis. Some of the fathers, from terms ill 
understood, divided the first ages into three or more epochs; and 
have distinguished them by as many characteristics: Barbarismus, 
which is supposed to have preceded the Flood: Scuthismus (of 
which I have been speaking) and Hellenisinus or the Grecian 
period; writing the word ' EXXyvtapos or Hellenisinus with an aspirate 
so making it relate to their own country. 

But how was it possible for an Hellanic era to have existed before 
the name of Hellas was known or the nation in being? 

" Hesychins intimates that the name related to the fountain of 
day: and in a secondary sense to the fountain of wisdom. The 
people styled Hellenes are descendants of Hellen, son of Zeuth, 
and by this title are denoted people of intelligent aud enlightened 
mind. 

" From Babylonia the Hellenes came into Egypt ; and were the 
same as the Auritae or Cuthite Shepherds, who so long held the 
country iu subjection. Hence, we read of Hellenic Shepherds and 
and Hellenic princes who reigned in the infancy of that nation. 

" The Cuthite Hellenes who came into Egypt introduced their 
arts and learning; by which that of Egypt was styled Hellenic and 



* Epiphan. Advers Haeres. L. 1. p. 6. 



EL AND BEL. 125 

the ancient theology of the country was said to have been described 
in the Hellenic character and language. This had no relation to 
the Hellenes of Greece, being as I observed before far prior to that 
nation. 

" The Grecians suppose that by the Hellenic tongue was meant 
the learning of Greece, and that the Hellenic characters were the 
letters of their own country. But these writings were in reality 
sculptors of great antiquity ; and the language was the Cuthic, 
styled by Manethon the sacred language of Egypt." Thus Mr. 
Bryant. 

It seems plain, as intimated by Hesychius, that the Ellenes or 
Hellenes derived their names from an appellation of the Sun, which 
is that Phoenician or Hebrew name El, found in Sanchuniatho's 
history, and in the book of Genesis. The full primitive form of El 
would bo Gaedhal, equivalent to El-Gaedh, the God or the Good. 
El is the Chal in the word Chaldaea, which sometimes has the form 
of Baal, Bel or Bael. In our word Ball it conveys the idea of 
roundness, the world being round. The Hebrew or Phoenician El 
conveys the idea of firmament, including sun, moon, stars, etc., all, 
as it were, set in a roof, as anciently conceived. In the old Saxon, 
Hel is a house, strictly a roof; helan to roof, cover over, which is 
the idea of (Chal, Ceiling) firmament. The word hell in our lan- 
guage has had a fearful meaning given it in theology ; its literal 
meaning is, however, simply a covered, roofed place. Considering 
the first part of the original word the Greeks were correct in put- 
ting the initial rough breathing before Ei, which makes it equal to 
the Chal of the Babylonians or Hebrews. We have the idea of 
house in our word Cell and of something upraised in our word Gal- 
lery. Such is the meaning of the word Chal abbreviated El, and in 
the word Chaklaea the second part of the compound means the 
same as the first. The latter is in full the Gaelic daemh or daebh, 
often found abbreviated dae. It is the root of our word day and 
the root de of deus, God. It is an old name for the sun, so that 
the sun is another word for the day. It is also the original of our 
word dome, which we find in the Latin domus, a house, strictly a 
roof, and as applied to the celestial dome it takes in the whole 
firmament, sun, moon and stars, just as Chal, El or Bel. 

Now, our word Cuth is properly Gaedh and Chal is, in full, 
Gaedhal ; but the dh or th is sunk on account of its being silent 
and the g is the original of the c. Moreover, Gaeth is equivalent 



126 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

to Schaeth or simply Seth, pronounced Scheth or Schah; and this 
Seth, so far as has been discovered by Eawlinson and others, is 
concluded to be the most ancient name for God among the Cushites. 
When, therefore, Hesychius or Bryant states Hellen to have been 
the son of Zeuth, i.e., Gaeth or Cuth, and the Greeks state him to 
have been the son of Deucalion, it is seen from the foregoing to be 
more than probable that they both refer to the same man as being 
his father, the latter using the full classic form of his name, the 
former a well known variation of one of its components. Bryant 
says that Deucalion, Prometheus, Zeuth, (Gr. Zeus) and Xuth 
(Chuth) were the same person. But those different forms of name 
for the same person evidently arose in different ways from local dif- 
ferences in the use, or spelling of the name and from spelling of it 
backward or forward as coming from the hieroglyphs ; for instance, 
the m, b and g being to a degree mutable we have daigh, daebh and 
daemh for Gaedh and so we have the God Dagon worshiped at Gath 
(Gaeth) whom Bryant finds to be not only the fish God but the 
same with Seth, the Sun, and Saidon to be the same as Dagon. 
Our author also discovers that one branch of the Cuthites were 
called Peresians from their worship of the Sun under the name of 
Pares or Perez and that these came to be called and are known as 
Persians ; but it is not probable that they worshiped the sun in any 
other way than as symbolical or illustrative of the deity. And in 
the same way, speaking of Ham, he says that " being the Apollo 
of the east he was worshiped as the Sun and was also called Sham 
and Shem." " The author of the Chronicon Paschale speaks of 
Chus as of the line of Shem and Theophilua in his treatise to 
Autolycus does the same by Mizraim. Others go farther and add 
Canaan to the number," etc. Mythology, vol. 1, p. 82. I cannot 
conceive how that Ham or Schem, the son of Noah, or Chus his 
grandson could have been worshiped in the sun in any other way 
than as symbolical of the diety. The sun, so glorious an object, 
was thought to represent the deity; the patriarch Scham, as to his 
moral and Herculean character, was analogously conceived to be 
a glorious object and this character symbolized by the Sun was a 
kind of an intermediary idea in their worship of the diety. They, 
doubtless, were accustomed to illustrate to their people the good 
character of the deity by the well known good character of the 
patriarch Schaem. 



CUTHITES, HYPERBOREANS. 127 

Of the various colonies and denominations of the Cuthites, we 
draw from Bryant again, Vol. V. 3, p. 175, as follows : — 

" We may I think be assured that by the term Scuthai are to be 
understood (Juthai. They were the descendants of Chus, who 
seized upon the region of Babylonia and Chaldaea; and consti- 
tuted the first kingdom upon the earth. They were called by other 
nations Cuseans, Arabians, Oreitae, Eruthraeans, Aethiopians, but 
among themselves their general patronymic was Cuth and their 
country Cutha. They were an ingenious and knowing people, as 
I have before observed; and at the same time very prolific. A 
large body invaded Egypt when as yet it was in its infant state, 
made up of little independent districts, artless and uninformed, 
without any rule or polity. They seized the whole country and 
held it for some ages in subjection and from their arrival the his- 
tory of Egypt will be found to commence, the region between the 
Tigris and Euphrates, where they originally resided was styled the 
country of the Chasdim ; but by the western nations, Chaldaea. 
It lay toward the lower part of the Tigris to the west and below 
the plain of Shinar. This country is said to have been also called 
Scutha; and the author of the Chronicon Paschale mentions Scu- 
thae in those parts, who were so called even in his days. But he 
supposes that the name Scutha was given to the region on account 
of I know not what Scythians from the North. Josephus expresses 
it Cutha and speaks of a river Cutha, which is probably the same 
as the Choaspes." 

HrPERBOREANS. 

" The northern Hyperboreans, who were the same as the Cim- 
merians, were once held in great repute for their knowledge. 
Anacharsis was of this family, who came into Greece and was much 
admired for his philosophy. There was an Hyperborean of great 
fame called Abaris. 

*' They were people of the same family who settled in Thrace, 
under the name of Scythae, Sithones, Paeonians, Pierians and 
Edonians. There must have been something mysterious in the 
term Hyperborean ; it must have had a latent meaning, which re- 
lated to the science and religion of the people so called. It did 
not relate to the north, as Herodotus conjectures, for Pythagoras, 
who had been in Egypt and Chaldaea, and who afterwards settled 
at Croton, was by the natives styled the Hyperborean Apollo. 



128 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

Pindar manifestly makes them the same as the Atlantians and Ama- 
zonians of Afric ; for he places them near the islands of the Blest ; 
he speaks of them as a divine race." 

The composition of the name Hyperborean, viz., Hiber, west, 
and boreas, north, would point to the people, who were called by 
that name, as inhabiting a country to the northwest of Greece and 
Italy. At an early age Scandinavia, Ireland and other parts of 
Europe were inhabited by Scuthae, more especially the colonies of 
Iberia and Baetica in Spain, who went under the same name and 
had the same ancestral history as those we have mentioned before ; 
those colonies were largely descended from the Scythic Egyptian 
kings of the line of Menes. 

Pliny, Mela, Strabo, Tertullian and others mention some horrid 
practices of the Sacae and Scythians upon the Palus Maeotis and 
the Tauric Chersonesus, which, with their cruelty, greatly tarnished 
their character, otherwise to a great degree noble and good. They 
were, also, in their religious rites, remarkably brutal and cruel. 

Of the Sacae. 

" We have shown that one of the most considerable colonies that 
went from Babylonia was that of the Indi or Sindi ; they settled 
between the Indus and the Ganges, and one of their principal re- 
gions was Cuthaia or Cathaia. They traded in linen and other 
commodities and carried on an extensive commerce with the prov- 
inces of the South. 

"A large body of them passed inland towards the north, under 
the name of Sacai and Sacaians; who ranged very high and got 
possession of Sogdiana and the regions about the Jaxartes. From 
thence they extended themselves eastward, quite to the ocean. 
They were of Scuthic race and represented as great archers; and 
their country was called Sacaia* and Cutha. Their chief city was 
Sacastan, the Sacastana of IsidorusCharacenus. Of their inroads 
westward we have taken notice before ; for they sent out large 
bodies into different parts ; and many of the Tartarian nations are 
descended from them. They got possession of the upper part of 
China, which they denominated Cathaia; and there is reason to 
think that Japan was, in some degree, peopled by them. Colonies 



Steph. Byzant. 



sacae' colonies. 129 

undoubtedly went into this country both from Sacaia and the 
Indus. 

" The Chinese were the ancient Sinae and Seres, who were so 
famous for their silk. There is in Pausanius a very curious ac- 
count of this people and of their manufactures. He then proceeds 
to give a minute but accurate account of the silk-worm and the 
manner of its spinning, which I omit : and concludes with telling 
us that the country from whence this commodity comes is an island 
named Seria, which lies in a recess of the Erythrean Sea. I have 
been told hy some, says he, that it is not properly the Erythrian 
Sea but the river Sera, which incloses it and forms an island similar 
to the Delta in Egypt. In short some insist that it is not at all 
bounded by the sea. They say also that there is another island 
called Seria : and those who inhabit this as well as the islands 
Abasa and Sacaia in the neighborhood are of the Ethiopian race. 
Others affirm that they are of the Scuthic family with a mixture of 
the Indie. The history is, in every part, true. Wherever this 
great family settled they were superior in science ; and though they 
degenerated by degrees and were oftentimes overpowered by a bar- 
barous enemy, which reduced them to a state of obscurity, yet 
some traces of their original superiority were in most places to be 
found. Thus the Turdetani, one of those Iberian nations upon the 
great western ocean, are to the last represented as a most intelligent 
people. They are well acquainted, says Strabo, with grammar and 
have many written records of high antiquity. They have also large 
collections of poetry ; and even their laws are described in verse, 
which they say are of six thousand years' standing. Though their 
laws and annals may have fallen far short of that date, yet they were 
undoubtedly very curious and we must necessarily lament the want 
of curiosity in the Romans, who have not transmitted to us the 
least sample of these valuable remains. In Tatianus Assyrius and 
more especially in Clemens of Alexandria we have an account of 
those persons who were supposed to have blest the world with 
some invention : and upon examination almost all of them will be 
found to have been of Cuthite or Scythian original." 

" When these colonies came in aftcrtimes to be degenerated 
there were still some remains of their original sense and ingenuity 
here and there to be found. This was to be observed in the people 
of Baetica, as I have shown from Strabo, and in the character of 
Cotys, king of Thrace. The like is taken notice of by Curtius in 

9— d 



130 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

speaking of the Pontic Scythae. And the poet Chaerilus has given 
a curious history of the Sacaean Scythae, of whose ancestors he 
speaks with great honor, when he is describing the expedition of 
Alexander the Great : — 

Next marched the Sacae, fond of past'ral life, 
Sprung from the Scuthic Nomades, who liv'd 
Amid the plains of Asia, rich in grain. 
They from the Shepherd race derived their source, 
Those Shepherds who in ancient times were deem'd 
The justest of mankind, (apud Strabonem). 

Yet we find that the Sacae by some have been represented as 
cannibals ; from whence we may perceive that people of the same 
family often differ from one another. 

Extracts from an inquiry into the origin and progress of the arts 
and sciences of Greece, by M. D'Ancarville : — 

" This author proves from history that a great Scythian empire 
did exist with the Assyrian, if not before it; that these Scythians 
extended their conquests to the Nile, and, returning from Egypt, 
employed fifteen years in conquering Asia, which they laid under 
tribute, even to the Eastern Ocean and Caspian Sea and Palus Mal- 
otis ; and that they held this conquest and tribute for the space of 
1500 years, till Ninus, the Assyrian king, found means to relieve 
his country from that impost. He then proves from Dionysiua 
Perige, and his contemporaries, Trogus Pompeius and Diodorus that 
by the Oriental Ocean is meant the Indian Sea. This would seem 
to refer to the conquest of Asia by Sesostris, the Egyptian king; 
but it is quite certain that Asia was not at any period sul>- 
ject to Egypt for 1500 3'ears ; nor was it subject to any one govern- 
ment for that length of time. But the narrative continues : — 
Such an army as the Scythians employed in these conquests, 
laying a country under tribute for more than a thousand leagues, 
implies, says our author, that the Scythians must have had money 
and the knowledge of arithmetical figures ; and, accordingly, we 
find Higinus gives the invention of money to the Scythians. " An 
Indian king in Scythia invented the money which Erichthonius 
first brought to Athens." It is supposed the word Argentina here 
has reference to money, proper, for the verb inveuire is always used 
by Pliny to signify the discovery of an art. It can, however, be 
proved from history that Scythian money was in use before this 
time and that it was in the reign of Amphyction that Erichthonius 



SCYTHIAN COIN. 131 

went into Scythia and learned that art. Amphyction was grandson 
to Deucalion, who was a Scythian, and hence the connection. 

" The Scythians having at different times very remote possessed 
various parts of Asia, their colonies having frequently changed 
their names, many lost the remembrance of their origin. Masters 
of all the countries situated between Caucasus and Egypt, they 
extended to the Eastern ocean, on the borders of which are situated 
the Chinese; and Japan is the greatest island on its coasts. 

" Scythopoli.s in Palestine was also called Scythica Nyssa. There 
was likewise a Nyssa in Caucasus and one in Arabia on the confines 
of Egypt : it appears, therefore, the Scythae gave this name of 
Nyssa (boundary) to those countries where they rested and left 
the use of money with whatever people they couquered. This may 
be proved by the tributes they imposed before the reign of Ninus ; 
for those distant nations that could not furnish tribute in kind, 
were obliged to pay in money ; the resemblance of the forms of 
the ancient coins of the Arabs, Japanese, Chinese and Greeks 
probably was given them by the Scythians. 

" Money was in use in Arabia when the book of Job was written, 
of which Moses is supposed to have been the translator ; for in Job 
mention is made of a species of money called Kesitah.* The 
feminine termination of this word in Hebrew, according to Bochart, 
implies a female lamb ; but he clearly shows it was a piece of 
money, as is proved also from other sources. 

" The invention of coin, or the sort of money discovered by king 
Indus in Scythia must therefore have been prior to the Scythian 
conquest of Asia and 1500 years before the reign of Ninus, the 
beginning of which is commonly placed 2110 years before the 
Christian era ; consequently the Scythian money was current in 
Asia 3610 years before the birth of Christ. 

" The date to which this inquiry carries us back of the existence 
of money precedes the institution of an astronomical period of the 
Persians by four centuries only ; and at the period here mentioned 
the Persian kings were tributary to the Scythians ; that period 
commences 3209 years before the Christian era (M. Bailly, Hist, 
de l'Astrom.). Astronomy was almost as early known to the 
Chinese, who preserve the use of the obolar coin invented by the 
Scythians to this day. 



* The word lor money in the Persian is Keeseh ; in the Irish Keesh, Keesta, or Keesda. It is 
supposed the root is Ueas, ore, or metal, whence Co-Ceas or Caucasus, remarkable lor its mines. 



132 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

" Herodotus tells us that when Scolotis or Scythes was presented 
with a bow by his father, he also gave him a girdle, with a clasp, 
ornamented with a vase or phiala of gold. 

" This historical fact presented by so many Scythian nations, by 
people so very remote from each other, as some of them were, 
confirms the truth of the tradition. It is a demonstration that be- 
fore the time of Scythes his countrymen were expert in the casting 
and working of metals and many other arts dependent thereon. 
History does not furnish another example of this kind at that period. 
The discoveries lately made by Mons. Pallus of golden ornaments, 
utensils and symbolical figures in those countries formerly inhabited 
by the Scythians, corroborates the assertion of Herodotus. With 
these phiala they made their libations to their Gods. Xerses used 
one, when he made his libation to the god of the waters, casting it 
into his bosom at the conclusion of the ceremony. 

" The serpent, the representative of the generative Being, was a 
remarkable symbol of the Scythians. Hence the story of Scythes 
being begotten by a god in connection with a woman half human, 
half serpent. This emblem they carried with them into China and 
Japan ; hence those monstrous figures of dragons and serpents we 
see on the Chinese paintings and on their edifices ; hence the Chinese 
story of Fo-hi or Fo-ki, their first founder, prince and legislator 
having been half human, half serpent. 

"In memory of their common origin all Scythian nations bore 
the serpent (which, according to Rabbi Moses, is the meaning of 
the word Yavah), as their ensign armorial. From them Arrian in- 
forms us the Romans borrowed it and gave to their Standard 
bearer the title Dracouarius. Of this name we have formed dragoon, 
signifying a soldier who fights on horseback or on foot after the 
manner of the Scythians. 

"The Sacae or Scythians were a wise and politic people ; having 
conquered Asia they imposed a tribute, so light, that it was rather 
an acknowledgement of their conquest than an impost. Asia was 
then a fief depending on Scythia : It was the first state governed by 
this kind of constitution and here may be discovered the origin of 
the Feudal system, brought into Europe by the descendants of 
these very Sacae. 

" From these Sacae are descended the Japanese. They still pre- 
serve the name in Sakai, one of their principal cities. The towns 



SACAE. 133 

Nang-saki, Amanga-Saki, mark the origin of this nation ; as do the 
names of many mountains, rivers, provinces and etc.* 

The Sacae were the inventors of arms and military dress. The 
short sword called Sahs by the Saxons, signified the sword of the 
Sacae : as with us bayonet and pistolet denote the species of arms 
invented at Baionue and Pistoia. The Sacae, by some called Sagae, 
beins; the inventors of reliirious emblems and the first that offered 
horses in sacrifice, gave birth to the words sacrum, sacrificium, sac- 
erdos. Hence the Greek -a^, whence ~apm, the shield and the bag 
to carry it in, hence also layo^, Sagum, the name of a military dress 
with many nations; hence Sagitta, a dart, an arrow; hence Scu- 
thae, archers ; — Scythes, qui primus arcus, sagitta rumque usum 
invenisse dicitur. (Pliny). 

If as warriors the Sacae invented arms and m ilitary dress, so as 
Shepherds, at their leisure, they were the authors of music and 
musical instruments ; the Saxadtm of the Greeks derives its name from 
them," and doubtless the Sacca-bouche or Sackbut of the Old 
Spaniards ; to which may be added the Clar-Seac, or harp of the 
ancient Irish. "But these Sacaa, when they left Armenia, seem to 
have changed the mildness of their ancient manners ; they were no 
longer the upright and just people so celebrated by the poet Choe- 
rilus; they now imitated the Treres and Cimmerians, who in the 
time of Midas, towards the 21st Olympiad ravaged Asia. These 
people of the same origin with the Sacaa were the Seythae of the 
branch of Agathyrsus. These Sacae, following their example, de- 
scended from Armenia into Cappadocia and seized upon that part of 
Pontus nearest to the Euxine Sea (Strabo Geog.). Here they 
armed vessels and became pirates as their neighbors had done be- 
fore. 

" Our author then goes on to prove that the mythologies of the 
Egyptians, Brahmins, Chinese, Japanese and all other oriental 
nations had that of the Sacae as their basis." 

THE SAXON CHRONICLE AND OTHER AUTHORITIES. 

Well acquainted with the Britains after they had subdued them and 
become acquainted with their history, the Saxons, in their Chronicle 
assert that the first settlers of Britain came from Armenia; and that 
they seated themselves in the southwest of the island. The same 



* Scheuchrer's Hist, of Japau and Vail. Vindication of Irish Hist. 



134 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

Chronicle speaks of Ireland as being settled by the Scotti about the 
same time. It next records the arrival of the South Scythians by 
Sea also, in long ships, whom the Armenian Scythians would not 
suffer to land and they then went to the Scotti in Irelaud, who also 
declined receiving them, but advised their settling in North Britain, 
which they did ; and afterwards the Scotti of Ireland intermarried 
with them, governed them and gave their name to Scotland; which 
is legendary and not historical. 

The Chronicle brings the Bolgae from the continent to the 
British Isles and says it was this tribe who first gave Julius Caesar 
information of those isles, which is so completely puerile as not to 
be worthy of notice. Julius Csesar, as well as other intelligent 
Romans, was doubtless not only versed in the geography but in the 
internal affairs of those isles from boyhood up. 

Lloyd considered it proved by the topographical nomenclature of 
South Britain that the Irish possessed that country at a time prior 
to its possession by the people called Britains, whom they call 
Armenian Scythians. But, independently of all other existing his- 
toric monuments the language and mythology of the ancient Irish 
sufficiently prove them to have descended from those Armenian 
Scythians who conquered and ruled in Egypt, on the Pontus Euxi- 
nus, &c, and in Spain whence they came to the British Isles. 

Le langue d'ime nation est tonjours la plus reconnnoisable de ses 
monumens : par elle on apprend ses antiquitez, on decuvre son 
origine. — (M. Fourmont, Mem. de literat.) 

" The language of a people is always the most recognizable of its 
monuments : by this one apprehends its antiquity, one discovers its 
origin." Such is the opinion of that great historian and linguist, 
Fourmont. 

Father Georgi, during his residence in Thibet, finding their 
mythology was Egyptian and that the Thibetans were descended 
from the Southern Scythae, accounts for it as follows : " Scythae in 
Sacris Egyptiarum instructi ab exercitu Ramsis, qui jam annos ante 
Sesostrim circiter centum, Libya, Ethiopia, Medis, Persis, Bactris 
ac Scythis politus dicitur." " Scythians were instructed in the 
sacred things of the Egyptians by the army of Rameses, who already 
about one century prior to Sesostris is said to have acquired pos- 
session of Libya, Ethiopia, the Medes, Persians, Bactriaus and 
Scythians," but lest objection should be made to this assertion he 



VOCABULARIES. 



135 



adds : " fuerunt Colchi Scythae, Egyptiorum coloni : " " the Col- 
chians were Scythae, colonists from Egypt." * 

A Brief Comparative Vocabulary of Some of the Most Ancient 

Languages. 

The Gaelic or Irish being one of the most ancient languages now 
extant in the world, I will in the following tables give an exhibit of 
some of its words, placed in juxtaposition with some of the same 
or of kindred meaning in other very ancient languages, which may, 
first, serve to indicate some lines of descent of that ancient peo- 
ple ; and secondly, to show that the phenomena of the varieties of 
human speech presents no opposition to such idea of the unity of 
the human race as is given in the Bible. 

" The Pehlvi dialect of the Persians prevailed chiefly around the 
Caspian Sea and in the more mountainous dependencies of the em- 
pire ; it continued to the reign of Behram Gur, in the fifth cen- 
tury, when it was prescribed in a formal edict, and soon after ceased 
to be a living language." (Richardson's Diss. ) 

" There were three different dialects of the Chaldaic, according 
to Abulfarage. That of Mesopotamia, i.e., Aram or exterior 
Syria ; that of interior Syria, spoken at Damasc, and all that coun- 
try between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean, called the 
Palestine dialect; and the third, the Nabathasan, spoken by the 
mountaineers of Assyria and the province of Irak or Chaldaea ; 
and this was the most ancient, and that Abraham and his ancestors 
spoke, and in which the books of Zoroaster, named the Zend, 
Pazend and Avesta have been written with a mixture of the ancient 
Persian or Pehlvi." (D'Herbelot.) 

The following vocabulary of those Eastern languages is largely 
drawn originally from the collection made by Anquetil : — 



ZENDIC. 

Eden-anm 
Ede 

Eretzeste 

! Erode ■) 
Eoroud ) 
Erein 

Ezaede 



PEHLVI. 

edoun 

asin 

jede-man 

e nameh ) 
] rad \ 
( arowad ) 

bandeh 

bun 

hozed 



IBISH. 
eadhon 
da, son 
ed, to handle, 
mana, a hand. 

[ naemadh | 
j ruadh J 
i Urra, ara, ban- ) 
! noir, bandsglabh \ 
bun 

i Nasadh | 
i Saoidh j 



explanative. 
if 

hand 



famous 

servant. 

slave. 

root, stock. 
< great, j 
i illustrious. 1 



* Alphabetum Tibetanorum, p. 38. 



136 



CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 



ZENDIC. 


PEHLV1. 


Ashtesch 


ashte 


Asp 


Sosia 


Egh6 


Sareh 


Amerschen 


Amargan 


Eneko 


peschanth 


Ev<5 


bala 


Eoschtre 


lab 


Esde 





Cai 



IRISH. 


ENGLISH. 


aseth, osath 


peace. 


asb 


horse. 


Eag, a neg- 


bad. 


ative particle 


marthannach 


immortal. 


Sianiei, an aigh 


front, face. 


nav-balach, a giant 


high, tall. 


liobar 


lip 


Eadan 


forehead. 


Ce, Cai, Cu, Oua 


a king, a giant 



This word Cai that signifies in the Pehlvi or ancient Persian a 
great King or giant is used by the Manx, or inhabitants of the isle 
Mann, as the title of their magistrates, as " the Cays." It is the 
Arabic Cai, a prince ; Chald. Ceh. Hence Caian, Caianides, the 
second dynasty of Kings of Persia properly speaking; for it is said 
on good authority that the Pishdadians, or those of the first 
dynasty, should rather be thought of as Kings of the Babylonians, 
Assyrians and Medes than Persians, according to the information 
conveyed to us by the Greeks about them. The Gaelic Cu has for 
its genitive Con; but the full form of the nominative is Caeth, 
pronounced Coi or Caw ; and the diminutive or genitive form is 
Cathan, pronounced Cawn. 



Abesta 
Enghshe" 

Ehmae' 

Bereete' 

Besch 

Bantoo 

Boneui 

Te 

Tedjerem 

Khroid 

Kh-scheio 

Kh-Schtoum 

Kh-shoueseh 

Khore' 

Deschmehe 

Neaesch 

Eschnfi 

Vetche 

Vcsa 

Vohone 

Vatem 

Hereto 

Hekel 

.Ir/.li'i 

Jare 



PEHLVI. 


IRISH. 


ENGLISH. 




beaschna 


language. 


dounia 


domhan 


the world. 


Zagh 


j Magh, Seagh, Seagh- j 
( Ian, a King. j 


great. 


dadrounesche 


beirt 


carries. 


dan 


beith, do 


two. 


Vimar 


baun 


dead. 


bonn 


bunn 


foundation root. 


tou 


tu, te 


thou. 


Zari 


Srai 


flowing water. 


Kherondj 


Cruaidh 


hard. 


malhe 


male, shah 


King. 


Schaschom 


Seisamh 


Sixteenth. 


Se Se 


Se 


Six 


Khouroun 


Coire 


a feast. 


dehom 


deacma 


tenth. 


Neasch 


naisch 


prayer. 


eschne 


easam 


to make. 


gobeschne 


i gob, the tongue ) 
i gobach, talking; S 
C beaschna, speech / 


to speak. 


Vas 


fas, moreover, 


much. 


damma 


damp, ilaiin 


blood. 


Vad 


fath, bad 


wind. 


Sodar 


Suadhaire 


a chief. 


pavan-aknin 


achd 


but. 


jez-banom 


geis, prayer. 


I pray. 


sanat 


I errai, spring; j 
1 sal, a year, ( 


a year. 



VOCABULARIES. 



137 



ZENDIC. 

Tchethro 

Pero 

Pesano 

Ized 

Afrin 

Ana 

Aban 

Ani 

Aug-Jura 

Asp 

Aspal 



Herbed 

Gah 

Potbre 

Nekah 

Ner<5 

Descheno 

Dehrao 

Denghoo 

Dkeescho 

Drodjem 

Reotcben 

Ran£ 

Zele 

Zest<§ 

Stree 

Streoved 

Sperea^ 

SeoneBChte 

Gbnao 

Freeschte 

Freire 

Fschtane 
Keic, Ko 
Gueosch ) 
Goscht6 J 
Garni 

Medo 

Neomehe 

Neeman 

Vareete 

Vero 

Ab 

An-scboto 

Attonnaton 

Anatounaton 

Ahlobor 

Agas 

Abodj 

Amotia 

Avres 

Azdeman 
Eod-jert 
Asbachshne 
Bita 



PEHLVI. 

tehahar 
rouin 

Kin. Il 

Ized 
Afrin 
ana 
anigin 



a herbed 



gah 
poser 

nekah 

neer6 

dasche" 

donm 

danacha 

din 

daroudj 

roschneh 

ran 

aszaed 

jede-man, 

Vakd 

Seroud 

seper 

Soud Ehesteh 

vakdan 

terest 

meh 

pes tan 

kedar 

gosch 

zemestan 



nohom 

nim 
j vared ) 
t varan \ 

pad 

mardom 

takhtar 

neham 

aschai 

agah 

tchouz 

parastar 

peigham 

djonlah 
perahen 
asaieBCbne 
khaneb 



ceithre, ceathar, 


four. 


roimh, ria. 


before, in front. 


sin£ 


the breast. 


Sidh 


good genii. 


Afrin 


office of prayer. 


ana 


riches, money. 


abhan.ariver, 


the Ized of water, 


an, ano, 


water. 


eang 


a year. 


asb, easb 


a chief. 


absdal, easbal i 
a disciple orapos- > 
, tie. ) 


a priestly order. 

under a mobed. 


Urbaiil 


e a priest who 
} took care of the 
( holy fire. 


guih 


prayer. 


plnthar 


a son. 


nuacor, bride I 
or bridegroom \ 


nuptial bene- 
diction. 


near 


man. 


deas 


right hand. 


duine 


people. 


dana, danach 


learned. 


deac, din 


law. 


draoidheacht 


necromancy. 


rushin 


light. 


urran 


thigh. 


saith, sath 


sufficient. 


Ed, mad, mana. 


hand. 


Stri-pach, a harlot. 


female. 


Sar t music; Sartonna 
a teacher of music 


he sings. 


epeir 


the heavens. 


Seod Kiste 


a treasury. 


gean 


woman. 


foras 


an index. 


f earr, maih 


excellent. 


paisde, a sucking 
infant. 


a teat. 


ci, ce, 


who, which. 


gusham, to hear. 


the ear. 


gim-rah 


winter. 


mead, wine or honey; ) 
as, drink, milk. > 


wine. 


naoieamh 


ninth. 


neamh 


part, half. 


farain, rain 


it rains. 


ab, dad 


father. 


as-scath, muird 


man. 


tactaire, a mesenger, 


to run. 


nim, nihim 


to do, to put. 


coishe 


holy. 


uige 


knowledge. 


toiche, bud, 


membrum. 


modhlreastar ) 
fear-freastail. \ 


a servant. 


abaris, eloquent, 
seadhatn, to talk. 


speech. 


diall, a saddle, 


a saddle cloth. 


P^ide, chald, adah, 


dress. 


beaschna, shiochain, 


quiet, ease. 


both, can, cai, 


a house. 



138 



CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 



ZENDIC. 

Bilai 

Banoi 

Bun 

Papia 

Peidan 

Toug 

Tabna 

Tin 



Denn 

Djatoun 

Remane 

Rekita 

Tra 

Kad banou 

MrutO 

Ather 

Calliane 

Deirira ) 
Deirimher j 
Daimli 
Fal 
Os 

Oschan 

Ereezem 

Thre 
Thrianm 
Oue 
Zonr 



tcbah 


bile, water, 


a wall. 


banou 


bean 


a woman. 




bun 


race, family. 


djameh 


pape-lin 


poplin. 


peigham 


seadham 


speech. 


doud 


doig, toit, teagh, 


smoke. 


kah 


taebhan, straw j 
catb, chaff ( 


straw. 


andjr 


tine 


a fig. 


gruteman, the 


Grudeman, the 




angel of death 


great judge of the grave. 






duine 


people. 


Ized 


sidh 


a good genius. 


anas 


rimmon 


a pomegranate. 


schagard 


reachtaire 


a disciple. 


tra 


tra 


season. 




cead bunai 


chief of families. 




Marlhuidh 


mortal. 




Athar 


perfume. 




laineach 


rejoicing. 


deirimher 


deirini, drim, 
druim 


a temple. 




damn 


an ox. 


fal 


fal 


divination. 




Oe, nas 


elevated. 




Oishin 


powerful. 

the good genius. 


del 


dil 


the heart. 


Shenascha 


Seanacham 


to know. 


se 


tri, tre, si, 


three. 


sevin 


trian, treas 


third. 




TJa, 0, 


male, son. 




Suir, a river, 


holy water of the 
Zoroastrians, 



Not only the Ganges but the Indus was by the Airyans, called 
Suir. " The river Indus," Pliny tells us, " was by the natives 
called Sandus; it is now called Seen-dhos, but, when swollen with 
all the rivers of the Penjab, flows majestically down to Talta, 
under the assumed name of Soar." (Maurice's Hist, of Hindos- 
tau . ) 

Sethar, pronounced Shur, Sehor or Shaur was another name of 
the Nile. 



ZENDIC. 


FEHLVI. 


IKISH. 


ENGLISH, 


Ath-corono 




cearanoch 


a priest. 


AJka 


risch 


Ulca 


a beard. 



End of the Zendic vocabulary, 
the Pehlvi, Persian and Irish. 



The following is a collection of 



PEHLVI 

Rcuin 

Reraeka 

Zazra 



PERSIAN 


IRISH. 


ENGLISH. 


peseh 


roim, sasach 


before, in front. 


madian 


maidhin 


female. 


vehi 


sar, sar-vai, 


excellent. 



VOCABULARIES. 



139 



( Zakar J 
I Zakeo j 

Damia 

Sakina 

Schat-meta 

Scheg 

Kavid 

Kosche 

Kopa 

Kumra 

Goumeh 

Lesan 

Malahi 

Matour 

Akoo 

Behist 



PERSIAN. 



khoan 

kared 

naodan 

djo 

boas 

paresta 

palan 

kumra 

garmi 

zaban 

remak 

meher 



I dara bebist / 

[ daranaemh ] 

the house of 

felicity 



IRISH. 


ENGLISH. 


near, sea, ascath, 


male. 


damb, blood consan- 
guinity. 


blood. 


skian 


a knife. 


scud, naoi 


boat, vessel. 


sheagal 


barley 


gabhar, gabharbouc, 


he goat. 


coisiche, giolla.coise 


servant boy. 


al, pal, copal, 


a horse. 


coraora, cuniara 


asheepfold. 


gorm 


heat. 


lisan 


tongue. 


malacb 


salt. 


mithr 


Mithra. 


cean.can, acan; 


chief. 


naemh 


felicity, heav< 
Paradise. 



The following are a few words of the Brahminical as compared 
with the Irish in the same manner : 



BRAHMINICAL. 

Ishwara 
Achar 
Budha ) 
Xaca j 
Kesee 
Oosana i 



osana i 

or > 

>okra 7 



Sookr 

Diarmitu, al 

Dherma rajah 

Bhabhani 

Gopia 

Callee 

Baran 

Soma 

Syon 

Guru 

Lukee 



Kartik 
Sieb 

Arun 

Surya 

Daghdae 

Myn 

Crishna 

Birto 



IRISH. 


ENGLISH. 


Aesfhara 


God. 

41 


Aesar 
Budh j 


ft 


Seacha \ 




Ciseal 


The Devil. 


Uisean } 

or > 

Sochrai ) 


The Fallen Angel. 




Diarmat, Diarmitu 


The God of Arms. 


Bhebhin 


Venus. 


Gubha 


The Muses. 


Caili 


The Murdering Goddess. 


Bhrain 


Neptune. 


Som.Some 


Presiding over Trees and Plants. 


Snan 


Goddess of Sleep. 


Grua 


A Spiritual Guide. 


Lugh 


Goddess of all kinds of corn. Her 




festival is kept in August. The 




same as Ith, i.e., Sith. Hence 




proper name Lughaidh = Sith— 




each or Seach. 


Creatach 


The consecrated. 


Sab 


The Angel of Death. 


Arnthn, pron. Arun 


Phoebus. 


Soire 


The rising sun preceded by Arun. 


Daghdae 


Of the burnt chariot. 


Mamn 


Cupid. 


Cris, crishin 


Apollo, the Sun. 


Beart 


A sacrifice. 



In Irish mythology Daghdae sometimes means the Sun at others 
Apollo. In the Circassian Daga means the Sun. In Irish history 
he is named Crios and is said to be the brother of Ogmius. Nion 
means principally a daughter (nighean) but it also means a son and 



110 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

children, as Nion Crios, the children of Crios or of Daghdae. One 
of his daughters was Be-righit, goddess of rhetoric; another Be- 
laighas, goddess of physic ; another Dian-ceacht, goddess of gram- 
mar and letters. The daughter of Ceacht was Etan (Athena) 
be-cearda, the goddess of arts and manufactures ; and others of 
them were the goddesses of Goba or Gubha, that is, the Muses. 
According to Ferdousi Zerdusht descended of the family of Daada, 
but in the Zerdusht Nameh his ancestor is called Daghda. The 
ancient Irish deity Daghdae was called the wise governor ; and also 
Cearo; in old Persian Cor in modern Khor, the Sun. From Cear 
the Sun and the Irish Iosta or Ista, a house, is Istakar, i.e., Persep- 
olis. " Ista," says Richardson, " denotes a place, station, or 
dwelling (from the Persian verb istaden, to stand, remain, dwell) ; 
Khur or Khar signifies the Sun; whence Istakhar, the place or 
temple of the Sun." " I think I have demonstrated that the Per- 
sian empire and the foundation of Persepolis ascend to 3209 years 
before Christ. Djemschid, who built the city, entered it and there 
established his empire, the very day when the Sun passes into the 
constellation of Aries. This day was made to begin the year ; and 
it became the epoch of a period, which includes the knowledge of 
the solar year of 3fi5 days 6* hours. Hero we find astronomy coeval 
with the origin of the empire." (Bailly to Voltaire, Letter II). 
This must refer to an old foundation ; for the Persepolis proper of 
the Greeks appears to have been built after the Persian conquest of 
Babylon. 

Because in the following vocabulary of Hindu, Gypsy and Irish 
words the Gypsy agrees, to a large extent, with the Hindu, it must 
not on that account be concluded that the Gypsies speak either the 
Hindu or the Irish language. The Gypsies, however, appear to 
have arisen from the Indo-Scythians, long separation causing the 
differentiation which appears in their language as compared with 
what may be called their mother tongue. But speaking truthfully 
that called the Gypsy language is more fitly called a jargon; for 
from several translations I have seen of the Lord's Prayer from the 
Gypsy as derived from different countries in which those people 
dwelt, it appears to have no standard, differing so remarkably in the 
different countries. 

Our Gypsy vocabulary here is from that of Cox, as collected in 
Hungary ; that of Bryant and Marsden in England and that of Grell- 
man in Germany. The Hindu vocabulary is mostly from Gilchrist's 



VOCABULARIES. 



141 



Dictionary of the Hindoo language. As to the origin of the Gypsies 
Grellraan mentions that 178 had written on that subject before hiin 
all differing in opinion as to it. 



HINDU. 


gtpst. 


1KISH. 


ENGLISH. 


Banor 


godocavan ) 
papinori \ 




Ape. 


Gudha 


millan 




Ass. 


Howah. bao. puwau 


yarrow, beval calo, 
prabal 




Air. 


Bhan. hateh 


moshee, mossin, 
mucia 




Arm. 


Upur. aopur. barh 


apra 


uabhr, barr 


Above. 


Jugna.jugana 


ionadass 




To awake. 


Rag, bowus. chahar, bhua 


tschar, djiplo 


duslach 


Ashes. 


Pawng. sjuw. seo 


pabu] 




Apple. 


Kiro. tschoutj. cheeoonta 


Kirja 


kirog, a beetle 


An ant. 


Potdjna. aeu. aeurbul, j<«ig 


buda, purana 


aos (age) aoide (youth) 


Age. 


Eulhari. Kooharee. P. tubur tower, tober 


tuath 


Axe, bill. 


Kuffu. ahunkaree. ghu- 
mmidee (haughty) 


gojemen 

B, 

Cormali 


bomanach 


Arrogant. 




Cora-mala 


Bagpipe. 


Dala, bough 


bui 


duile, leaf 




Ruti, roti. khana 


manro, manru, maro 
malum 


' naran, maran, roisteen 


Bread. 


Lohu, roodhir. lalee, 
foorkhee 


rait, rat 


Ceara, gal, ruadh, rata lal 


Blood. 


Beer, bhaee, bhrata 


pal 


brathair 


Brother. 


Nala 


pashoo, pannee 


alt, nalt 


Brook. 


Pectnl 


porcberie 


prais, umha 


Brass. 


Kaulhe, pootle 


Cauliban, Calo, Kela 


, Caili 


Black. 


Neel 


Yack 


Nial 


Blue. 


Cheereah, taar 


Chericloe, tschirikh 
tshirkli 


' Tir, falrith 


Bird. 


Pitch, pet 


Per 


pit 


Abdomen. 


Bozu 


Lavannah 


Lionn, leann 


Beer. 


Pool, doura 


Pargee 


Droohad 


Bridge. 


Dunini, Sans 


Beval, dako 


Daigh, deaitb 


Breath. 


Kuman, Kumtha, doura 


Casht 


Caman 


Bow. 


Ketab, bed, 


bill, buchos 


bed 


Book. 


Bhur, nouka 


bara 


baris, naoi 


Boat. 


Piteb, peet 


domoe 


drora 


Back. 


Jou 


give, gib, arpa 


arbhar 


Bailey or Corn, 


Dah,pinda, gat j 
Kaeea S 


trupo, teschta 


Con, truail 


Body. 


Bhar.biz 


birda, paro 


beart 


Burden. 


Janueor, pusoo, mirg 


telel 


tlas, piasd 


Beast. 


Soour, burah 


bikerisb, krohila 




A boar. 


Tschali, dhari, chilka 


borka, t6hjlka 




Bark. 


Darhee, chinibook, ankree 


tschor 


an grean, angTinn 


Beard. 


Pich, hware 


gew, buhl 


ar gul 


Behind. 


Tchalti, heea, heera, hirda 


Kelin 


Chiabh 


Breast. 


Chokra, lounda, baluk 


tschabe, tshaivo 


luan, balac 


Boy. 


Mes, tukhta, pat 


pal 


pal, pal-maire 


A board. 


Sutlj, sitka, puttee 


dori 


dora, a cord 


A band. 


Mukhen 


Kil 


macau 


Butter. 


Genden, gimdbuk 


Kaudini 


ruimb 


Brimstone. 


Ghunta, Chourase 


Kambana 




A Bell. 


Nunga, Ehoola 


naogo 


nochdi, calbh 


Bare, bald. 


Choura, cliukla 


bulhaila 


bulin, a loaf, 


Broad. 


Panee, Jul, water, 


janosal, copanee 


bane, baine, gil 


Bath, water. 



142 



CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 



HINDU. 
P. Puneer 
Koorkee, unga 
Xugar, lok 

Gou, gae, goroo 

Teleea, puthur, Cala 
Koela, ungara 
Dood-dan, dood-kush 

Lurka, baluch 

Ruch-buch 

Koolah, chandee 

t, Hooddee, t, horhee, 
Shomni 

Tshasee, Rata, piala 
Tamba 
Surinam! 
Khat 

Khuree-muttee 
Kobee, couve 
Kheera, Kukree 
Gal, Kupol 

Rhansee, Rassee 

Shikar, uher 

Buhadoor, mirza 
Surdar, Omura 
iMuzzizam, girja, Rulesa 
Ishba, Rothee 
Benka, bankdar, tera 

Diw, diu, dewus 
Kosta, Rookur, Sug 
Peena, to drink 

Mua, mala, mot, mordanee 



GTPST. 
Ral, Riral, Riras 
Chokwan, Roro 
Sorooso 
grove, gouvine, 

guruni 
Shill, jangar, angar 
vongur 
tophis, con 

tarno, tshorwo, 
tsbabo 

peng, colah 

Chunibo 

Corow, becbari 
Carcoban 
iasa vallacai 

gereta 
Shash 
boharka 
tshau 

shin 
ghas 

Shegari. sidah, 

ritteri 

jainmadar 

Rangri 

isba 

baugo 

j davies, devns, 

( dewes 

Yacal, Shokel 



Dooara, dur 
Tullaw, Khaee 
Tub-butter 

Guddee, uigur, gnl 

Nala 

Minet 

Gehera 
Snkka 



peola 

S Moloo, mirabau 
^ Moola, moulay 

rattie, rattigin 

Wooda 

tallo 

Shetshblee 

beng 

rnndo 

Sik 

gor 

Shuk-rohilo 



IEISH. 
biuid 

Cota, gnna 
ngar 

gabnach, gach, ga 
cual, gual 
mionn gual 
mucan 

lorga, balach 
Coloht 



pheala, bochla 
ban 

Sallabhnachd 
Cai teach 
Criath 
Cabaiste 
Cucumar 
leath-cheann / 
eulba, mouth j 
li, same, sainre 
Casach 

Sealg, Siodhan 
rideri, a Knight 
Emir al amhra 
Cong, Ceall 
iosda 

bogha (bow) 
dia 

j Sag, a bitch ; ) 

( Cealab, a dog j 

j baine, water / 

j ola, drink \ 
) mord, muath 
> Caucasus; mard, malat 
' muah, 

reaght 

doras 
Cuihe 
tovandei 

gul, gulin 
neal, naul 
Tacan (uudiligent) 
• mianad 
gair 
sic 



ENGLISH. 
Cheese. 
Coat. 
City. 

Cow. 

Coal. 

Cinder. 

Chimney. 

Child. 

Children. 
Crown. 

Chin. 

Cup. 

Copper. 

to command. 

A couch. 

Chalk, Clay. 

Cabbage. 

Cucumbar. 

Cheek. 

Colour. 

Cough, 
j Chase 
I Venison. 

Cuirassiers. 

Commander. 

Church. 

Chamber. 

Crooked. 

Day. 

Dog. 

to drink 

Death. 
Dead. 

Dark. 
Night. 
Door. 
Dike. 
Dove. 

Dragon. 

Devil. 

District. 
Diligence. 
Deep. 
Dry. 



J Awk, ank, nyn, chukh i 
I naka < 

Kawn, gosh 

Kubhce, suda, nit 

Zemin 

Ar. Oogab 



havoura,aok,yaka,i . > 

yokj nu| -.nnc-ceph,> 
po, aran, yakan 5 roamek J 

Can Ran gash, gusham (to hear) 

Sawjaw mdhe.siodh-aire 



phovee, bliu, pube 
Sanwee, 

bishothilo 



budh 
Seavoc j 
asalion j 



Eye. 

Ear. 
ever, 

forever, 
the Earth. 

Eagle. 



VOCABULARIES. 



143 



HINDU. 


GTPST. 


IRISH. 


ENGLISH. 


Bhonn 

K liana 
Khutt 


yoene, ccenne 

challow 

Leil 


K.'iihiii) 

Ceit, dubh-ceit 


Eyebrows, 
to eat. 
Epistle. 


Summutscha-ghnr 


Ker, baua 


goir, house, guirm / 
inn ] 


House. 


Sara, 6umocho 


zelo 


slan, sar, sair 


Entire. 



F. 



Bap, bab, pita 
Teem, lu 
p.hool, jouun 

Bunsee, bansree 

Dur, turs, d, bak 

Jungel 

Ag 

Paon, pir, pug 

Unglee, ungoosht 

b, hura, poor 
Mukhee 
Lurahee 
Punkh, pur 
Lamisu 

Jhunda 

Much, hlee, muchee 

Kohassa, Ke, Kol 

Moiden 

Peeshe 

Batsheru 

Ghost 

Bukhtee, b, hag 
Khana, ahar 
Juta 
Bhura, poora 



ming, dad ) 
dade, dadi i 


daid 


Father. 


pratcheely, flammus loo, uloo, ulah 


Flame. 


rogee, rosee 


bla 


A flower. 


scholl 


Ceol, music I 
bunsa, a reed \ 


A flute. 


tresh 


Eagla, treas, adversity 


Fear. 


vash 


fasac 


Forest, wood. 


yog, yag, yajo 


agh, daigh 


Fire. 


peroe, piro 


pre 


Foot. 


Yalashtee.Kurzhilo 


1 


Finger. 


Guzdo, gush 


i 


pordo 


borr, complete 


Full. 




rausein 


A fly. 


Campan 


luireach, a coat of mail 


To fight. 


por, for 




A feather. 


hawlaw 


lamhasach, lamh, (hand) 


Feeling. 


decklo 


deighl, deighl greine ( 
Fingal's standard ) 


A flag. 


matchee, maishu, 
mulo 


meas, maighre 


Fish. 


Kaeddo 


Ceo 


Fog. 


akra 


acah, maidhneas 


Field. 


puzham, pushan 




A flea. 


deruagresch 


greah, a horse ) 
dear-groah, a Alley j 


Foal. 


Mas 


niaise, maiseach 


Flesh. 


baxt 


faghar, bhihaghar 


Fortune. 


gaben 


airear 


Food. 


lashilo, wingro 


leath-sealbh 


False. 


perdo 


pruite, bruite 


Full. 



Leurkhee, bandee, Kanea 

Urra 
Khoda, dawa 

Sun 

Burra 

Dyunt, dano 
Gas 
Hulla, loukee 

Bokh, bukra 

Kele, notsch 

Bhula, bala 
Ghur 

Pyther, Kaja, puhuree, 
tougree 

Ser 



assegne, assoinee 
tshe, tschaj j 



Chatto 

davila, dewa, dewal 

&c. 
Suhaike. sonnai, 

Sonnikey 
bootse, baro 
borwardo 
Char, wira 
dudum 
yc-rkingingri, 

ketsha 
Kelli-pen, tschilli- 

man 
latsho 
gur, Kir 
Cumbo, cumbee 

bar, dombo 
Sharrous, shoro, 

cheru 



lorg, offspring 
Caihne, virgin 
Coint woman 
bean, female 



duile, dia, covde 

San, Sanarc 

borr 

dana, bold, impetuous 

gas, sprouting up 

Caul 

boc 

Clei, Cleas 

ba, bil 

gur, gurni (an inn) 

pri, bri, coic 
Saor (prince) 



Girl. 

Green. 
God. 

Gold, golden. 

Great. 
Giant. 
Grass. 
Gourd. 

Goat. 

Game, Sport. 

Good. 

House. 

Hill. 
Head. 



144 



CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 



HINDU. 
Gorra, ghassl 
Si tar 

sivurg, nubh 

Seenga 

Bal 

Tuput, ugin 
Shahed, mud 

Sassa-Kurr 
Dil, mun, Chit 
Gibah 
Sheggar 
Barri 



GYPSY. 


hush. 


ENGLISH. 


gree, gre, Kray 


greah 


Horse. 


mauchouro 


Sitern 


Harp. 


ravoo, ravoos, 
shweto tscheross 


J neanih 


Heaven. 


Shing 


Sinn 


Horn. 


bullow, bal, pal, 
boleau 


folt, pholt 


Hair. 


tattoo 


teth 


Heat. 


gwju, mescho 


meadh 


Honey. 


Shoshi 


gearr-fhiadh 


A Hare. 


Sie, si 


dil, croith 


Heart. 


geb 


giobach, full of holes 


Hole. 


wezheakro 


Sealgaire 


Huntsman, 


bbarahilo 


beart (a burden) 


Heavy. 



Neaik, choudre 


bauro 


barr 


Judge. 


Louh 


fashta, trasht 


luaidh (lead) 


Iron. 


Deuw, moret 


sino, wocklee, idol 
dew 




Iodhal. 


Tukh, burf 


Yeko, paha 


oigbre 


Ice. 


Deep 


wesh 


dubha, (aquatic) 


Island. 


Raoo, b, hoom-pal, raja 


Crellis 


re, righ, fal 


Eing. 


Shabee, kili 


Clerin,Clidin 




Eey. 


Gunga 


shanga 


glun 


Enee. 


Eissa 


ona 


Kis, (a purse, a bag) 


Enapsack. 


Tshinta 


prinjerdo 


ainte 


Known. 


Likha, burun 


liecaw, shiwawa 


bar, a learned man 


Letters. 


Jeeoora, atnia, bolta, heea 


gava, geeva, life 




Life. 


Jhooth 


ochano 


gaoi or gaoith 


Lie. 


Ihootba Euhna 


gochoben 




To lye. 


Bagh, singh 


varess, baroping, 
oroshlana 




A lion. 


Bolee, banee, bat 


romana 


bearla 


Language, 


Huffna, hunfee, Ehil- 
Khilana 


fallaw, fawa 




To laugh. 


Eunchik, ulop, tenee 


bauro, tood, dood 


tana 


Lightning. 


Puttee, palo, dul 


patrin 


duile 


Leaf. 


Ear, teha, dhoon, kam 


butin 


duah, curam 


Labour. 


Aftara, langur, b, hungta 


bango 


bacach, lang (ankle) 


Lame. 


Mukset kurna, oobarna 
bucha, 1. teagna 


muk 


treigim 


To leave. 


Letna, lugna, purna 


deletshedoman 


laidhm 


To lie down. 


Rag, rag rung 


Cala, been 


Oeol, bin, rinke (dancing; 


1 Music. 


Ma, mama, muhtaree 


die, dai 


mathais 


Mother. 


Manoosh, manookh 


rome, giorgeo, J 
manusch gadze \ 


modh, mogh 


Man. 


Man's 


mass 


mann 


Meat, food. 


Dhud, doodh 


boot, but 


did, the pap or teat 


Much. 


Kul, bihan 


milo 




Mule. 


Bhor, turke 


feizrile 


feascir, trogain 


Morning. 


Gustur, doul 


goswro 


geis 


Manner. 


Chand 


moonah, shon, 
Shemut, marascha 


Cann, Ease 


Moon. 


dudul, Kuchar 


talo, panj, poshi 


Currach 


Morass. 


Duldul, chuhla, Keechur 


Schik 




Mud. 


Gorree 


graschni 


greah 


Mare, horse. 


Moouh, mookh, anun 


Mus, moi 


men 


Mouth. 


Soodh, chet 


rikeweh 




Memory. 


Bohtat, burhao 


but, behjr 


buidhean 


Multitude. 


Peyssa 


lowe 


piosa, lua 


Money. 


Henben, Kuthoor 


tshori, ropen 




Miserable. 


Beah, bhonree 


luno 


lanavnas 


Marriage. 



VOCABULARIES. 



145 



HINDU. 


GTP8T. 


IRISH. 


ENGLISH. 


Nak, nasika 


nock, nak 




Nose. 


Ginte, t, ho, adadah 


boot, gin 


eod, nead 


Number. 


Nuk.nukh 


Die 


ionga 


Finger-nail. 


Nya, nuween 


nevo 


una 


New. 


Iat, burun, log 


baurisoki 


lucud 


Nation. 


Eatali.rat 


rattie, rattigin 


reaght 


Night. 


Gerden, gulla 


pehenda 


gre 


Nut. 


Ghar, ghench, muiik.i 


men 


niiiiii, muinke 


Neck. 



Purann, puratum 

Garna, budhee, byl 

Tel 

Dureeaee, Sumoondur 

Ar. boolot 



Cashtan, puro 
gurub, gurni 
tedou, corat 
bauro, panee 
balano, mako 



Cais-giallach 
bol, bolan 

deire 



Old. 

Ox. 

Oil. 

Ocean. 

Oak. 



Ral 




boyocrot 


bioth 


Pitch. 


B, hngut 






buidheach 


Religious. 


Gooroo, beas 




rashee 


iriseach (religious) 


Priest. 


Mangna, munana 


moughem 




To pray. 


Tschan, tukra, 


tuk 


jek, otter 


toct 


A piece. 


Gerrah, 




gere, wormo 


gaireah 


Pit. 


Prohlo 




brohl 




A pear. 


Miritz 




peperi 




Pepper. 


Urrizi, urdas 




mangwa 


Oraid 


Petition. 


Raja 




raja 


rigb, reis 


Prince. 


Bulee, bnlera 




Sorio 


balach (a giant) 


Powerful. 


Serkarhuna 




pral 


drugaire (a slave) 


Poor. 



R. 



BirrBat 

Nnd, nuddee, gung, P. 

dureea 
Rut 
Puhar. 

Arsee, angutri, bank 

Ruputna, rumana 
Dugnr, rahbat, duhur 
Luhna, jnsnaf 
Issekta, manee 
Tuketa 



briskanoe.breeehind bhfhras, bior 

doriobh, doriove 

lolo 
bar 

vannustry 

yangustry, gulderin 

prasthem 

drom. podrum 

pleisserdum 

Schoker 

barwello 



Rain. 



deire (sea) ab (water) 


River. 


ruadh 


Red. 


barr 


Rock, hill. 


bang 


Ring. 




To run. 


rabhad 


Road. 


luacht 


Reward. 


muintreach 


Respectable, 


toiceach 


Rich. 



s. 



Dechib, sagur, Kala, ) 
panee, dun i 
Earn, dumun 
J, hool 

Guwena, luhukna 
Pureea, put 
Dhoro, Krjs, furoha ) 
oona j 
Poal, nalee 
Ohoora, bhoor 
Bbyna, chan 



baine, water 



bawro, panee < 

docyave, Sero j 

cham, Kain. O Kam Samh 

Coulee Caile, black 

givellan, giuwawa gavam 

bar, bare 

harrow, bauro, goro ( „ parhh 
chadum, ( cearDn 

pul, pas 

bior, tobhair 

pan, pen bean (female) 



Sea. 

Sun. 
Soot. 
To Sing. 
Stone. 

Sword. 

Straw. 
Sprins. 
Sister. 



10— d 



146 



CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 



HINDU. 


GTPST. 


IRISH. 


ENGLISH. 


Mitha 


gudlo 


Mitbeac 


Sweet. 


Ruppa 


roop.rup 




Silver. 


Nag, sanp, surp 


Sup Sep 


nag 


Serpent. 


Dunn 


tooph, thu 


deatach 


Smoke. 


Joota, chumaoon 


chawan 


Cuaran 


Shoes. 


Jee, Sut 


lesco, tbee 




Soul. 


Bheree hara, palee 


baucoringro 


pal, aodhair 


Shepherd. 


Soojh, drisht 


dicken 


deacam, to see, 


Sight. 


Soongh 


Shocmalee, Sung 




Smell. 


Savin 


Sapuni 


Siabhun 


Soap. 


Neend, vonghaee 


Savanow, Sowawa 


Suan 


Sleep. 


Pureh 


brija 


praiseacb 


Soup. 


Nun, Ion 


loon, Ion 


malah 


Salt. 


Greekhuin 


tattabeen 


teth (heat) 


Summer. 


Bull 


barrow, bala 


bull 

r. 

6, an e" so, e" 
is this be? 


Sand. 


Teh, ee 


acavat 


This. 


Woh, oos, Jls 


acavo 


Eisean 


That. 


Ngnr, poor 


burgau 


nagar, brugh ) 
puHn pattern \ 


Town. 


Ral 


Cbinabar 




Tar. 


Jeebh 


Chive, tscbib 


Gobhan 


Tongue. 


Gurij, ghubur 


godlie 


Cruini, gruim 


Thunder. 


Lor, ansoo 


panee, swa 


baine, a drop 


Tears. 


Sanch, such, sat 


techeben 




Truth. 


Rookh, gach.brich 


rook 


rus, trees 


Tree. 


Dant 


dennam, dant 




Tooth. 


Ponch, dum 


pori 




Tail. 


Tschik, Suwad ) 
rooch, chat > 


Sik 




Taste. 


Tschik-routee, pal j 
deru ( 


tschater, chor 


dair (house) 


Tent, roof 


Tschur, chor, tebug 


tschor 


taigh, taghad 


Thief. 


Jbeena, putla, Schano 


Sano 


tana, sheang 


Thin. 


Lena 


lawa 

U 
gave, gal, yegag 


lamham 


To take. 


Gauw, gaon, gram 


graijen, grainse 


Village. 


Tschekerin, Hunnya 


tschek 


coinne 
(a woman) 


Virgin. 


Serinda, Sarungee 


Schetra 

W- 


Violin. 


Panee, neer 


paneo, panj 


baine, noir 


Water. 


Beiar, bae, bad 


beval, bear, balwal 


bad, ansa 


Wind. 


llindee, istree 


romee 




Woman. 


Mud 


moul 


mead (wine of honey) 


Wine. 


Bat, bucbun, byn 1 
barta j 


Ohamo, lab, alo 


labhra (speech) 

ol (said) breithr 

(a word) 


Words. 


Tutta, tat, gorm 


tattoo 


teith gorm 


Warm. 


Seetkal, jarkal, himunt 


shillaloe 




Winter. 


Khirkee, guwacbu 


Khowe 




Window. 


Luliur, bhera 


bawro, panee, pleme^ 


Wave. 


Dane 


bollopen, boliboo 


domhan 


World. 


Kuan, Koha, baolee 


hanik 


bual (water) 


A well. 


Ginn, genhoon 


yiv 




Wheat. 


Kencheva, Keet 




Caireog 


Wax. 


Ojr, oon, roan 


puzhum 


roin (hair of animals) 


Wool. 


Para 


Sentinella 


Phaire 


Watching. 


Kassi, Khusum, walee 


gadsi 


Caise (love) 


Wile. 



VOCABULARIES. 



147 



The Egyptian language may be regarded as very ancient and as 
grown up from such a monosyllabic base in Asia as we see now 
presented in the Chinese. It is mainly preserved in the Coptic. 
The following Egyptian words are taken from the Nomenclatura 
JEgypto-Arabica of Kircher and from Dr. Woide's Coptic Lexicon. 
Agreeing to such an extent with the list of Irish words given it may 
be regarded as pointing to a connection of the ancestors of the 
ancient Irish with Egypt under the historic designation of Scythic 
or Shepherd Kings : — 



EGTFTIAN. 
Ath 

Aiai 

Al 

Amoi 

Amre 

Amre 

An 

Ani 

Anoni 

Aoun 

Aono 

Aouou 

Areh 

Areghj 

Aghjan 

Arika 

Aso 1 

As ebol J 

Ad 

Bol, Bolutio ) 

Bol ebol, mitijare J 

Ban 

Bots, war 

Ouoi 

Adooui 

Ash, to crucify 

Ashai 

Ashi 

Baki, city, 

Bari 

Bashi, cow 

Besnid of brass, 

Bel, water, j 

Bel-ebol, to become liquid \ 

Besb 

Bir 

Bighji 

Bok 

Boki 

Gallon, a bat, 

Ebol 

Eioul 

Emi 

Mok, mek, study 

Dod 

Erous, a response, 



IRISH. 


ENGLISH. 


ath 


negative particles. 


ai 


increase. 


ail 


a stone. 


mai Horn 


would that. 


amir, Arabic Emir 


A prince. 


amra 


A pounder, brayer. 


an 


neg. particle. 


an 


beauty. 


ana 


luxury. 


onn 


A troublesome thing. 


urra 


A pawn, pledge. 


Uinneog, a window, 


To open. 


aire 


A servant. 


earrach 


A terminus. 


gan 


without. 


aireac 


A lament. 


eas boloid 


To indulge; indulgence. 


ead 


Negative prefix. 


easboloid, absolutio 




bann 


Ugly, foul. 


buathas, victory. 




aoi 


person. 


ar doi 


morning. 


aish, to punish 




eis 


multitude. 


ais 


to hang, ponder. 


bocan, house 




boctain, edifice. 




baris 


a skiff, little ship, 


bois-ceil, a wood cow. 




bes, brass money. 




bial 




buas 


naked. 


barr, bearra, heart, 


a basket. 


bach, long-back 


shipwreck. 


beac. buacal 


serving. 


beac-arna 


a maid servant. 


gallun, a sparrow. 




ar auo 


So apart. 


ail 


A stag. 


eamh, eamhainsi 


Science, knowledge. 


eamanmaca, school, 




college. 




dod 


hand. 


ar 


he responds. 



148 



CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 



EGYPTIAN. 


IBISH. 


ENGLISH. 


Doiu, to adhere 


dom-lac, coagulated 
milk. 




Erfei, temple 


aifrion, a sacrifice. 




Erto, a cubit 


ortog, the little cubit. 




Ershon 


earasaid 


A garment, vest. 


Esie, elated, proud, 


eas, easlabra 


Proud wordB. 


Eimine, mine, sign, 


mionn, sign letter. 




Ermeine, to sign, 


tioma, a testament. 




Timeini, to expose to view, 


tiomana, to trade. 




Eida 


iod 


The Passover. 


Ephleon 


feilios 


vanity. 


Enouoi, a course 


naoi, a ship. 




Esho, 


Uas, Os 


above. 


Tichrei 


tria 


noble, protector. 


Eghjeou, a ship 


uighe, nigh-inge, 


a fleet. 


Thaibes, victory 


taibh, taibh real, 


Laurel of victory. 


Thai 


tul 


a hill. 


Thelel, thou killest 


teal-mac 


a particle. 


Thas 


tais 


similitude. 


Thoud, to bring a crowd together, 


tuidme, crowd, 


conspiracy. 


Thou 


tua, doi, 


wind, north wind. 


Thoud, to congregate, 


teide, a congregation. 




Thod, wine mixed with water, 


toide, Eng. toddy, 


also a joint farm. 


Thos, end, terminus 


tus, beginning. 




Thems, to bury, 


teim, death. 




Iten 


ith 


land. 


Ibi, to be thirsty, 


ibh, a drink. 




Ioh, ioch, 


eag 


the moon. 


lot, of barley 


ith, wheat. 




Piich 


pocan 


daemon. 


Kadmis, the Egyptian mulhery 


Cadmus 


the inventor of letters. 


whence 






Kaldas, sanctity, 


ceildei, 


consecrated. 


Kame 


Cama 


black. 


Kelghje 


Kealg 


an angel. 


Kadhed 


Keadfaoi 


prudence. 


Eas 


keas 


to break. 


Kat, intellectual, 


keacht 


intelligence. 


Kel kil 


keol, keolin 


a ringing instrument. 


Loghi 


leig 


to cease. 


Ma 


mai, mai dhuin 


give to us. 


Met 


milh 


negative. 


Muniak-espe 


muinke 


chain or collar. 


Mokh 


muc 


affliction. 


Nebi, to swim | 
Neph, a sailor ) 


naoibhe, a ship 




Xeb, lord 


naobh, holy 




Xtoms, thou baptizest 


tomam, to baptize. 




rimounhou, the region, 


in inuluim, a region. 




Las, pilas, 


lis 


tongue. 


Chukon 


calchne, caine 


nature. 


Ooch 


eag 


the moon, queen of the sea. 


Ke 


keo 


also. 


Lemne, a maritime port 


Luimneach, the port of 
Limerick. 




Tomi 


tuam 


a village. 


Rouchi, night, evening, 


reagh, night. 




Sobi, esobi, holy, 


J Eascob, a bishop. 

( Sob-sgeul, sacred history 




Niphoui, 


neamh, 


heaven. 


Niat, intelligence, 


nath, science. 




Os 


Os 


much. 


Oeish 


aos 


time. 



VOCABULARIES. 



149 



EGTTTIAN. 


IRISH. 


ENGLISH. 


Nout, God 


nodh, supreme, most 
noble. 




Oned a priest 1 
Esoueb a " ( 


Eascob, a bishop. 




Ouro.King 


aire, prince, Arab, har. 




Ouoine 


aine 


a lute or guitar. 


Outouet 


uatat, uathath 


greenness. 


Ohi, a flock, herd 


Avi, flock, aoire, pastor. 




Rako, to ascribe 


racam, to write. 




Kan, 


roinim 


to please. 


Rad, t" rad 


troid 


a foot. 


Rcim 


reim oilerac 


indigena, incola. 


Remnakat 


reimnacht 


endowed with intellect. 


Res, south 


reis, 


north. 


Re, sun 


re, moon. 




Red, rod, to arise, 


rad, horizon. 




Re, to make 


re, made. 




Red, 


reit, idea, species. 




Ribe.a skiff 


rab, an oar. 




Rokh, conflagration, 


rog, pyre. 




Sabe, wise, sbo, doctrine 


soib. 




Sai, 


sai 


fulness. 


Sad, to project, 


saidoir, a projector of 
arrows. 




Sack, a scribe, 


sach, to write. 




Schai, a letter, 


see, a little book. 




Se 


se 


the third person. 


Seini, a physician 


Seanam, to medicate. 




Dako, to perish, 


deag, death. 




Damo, to show, 


Oide, damoide, preceptor. 




Seth, powerful, strong, 


Saoth, a generous man, 
Sethir, Sethreach, 
strong man ; Sithbe a 

a leader. 




Deu 


dea 


wind. 


Phachairi 


pocaire, 


poisonous. 


Phette 


feite 


celestial arch. 


Phro, winter 


fuat 


frigio.. 


Pheriou, splendid 


forai na grian, the sun 
rising. 




Pholph 


bnal 


to speak. 


Phoir 


foir 


sleep. 


Phorgh 


fairke 


division. 


Phodh 


foda 


sculpture. 


Op 


upta 


chance, lot. 


Shai, the nose 


sai-run, the nose, run, 
the face. 




Shad, to cut, 


sadoir, to measure. 




She 


sae, wood, saor, a car- 
penter, fabricator of 
wood, 




Sheebol 


shuibhal, to go out. 




Sheri, a son, or daughter, 


shar, a son, sear-each, 
son of a horse, 
horseman. 




Shligh 


sleigh 


the colter of a plough. 


Shiai, extension 


si, whence sinim, 


to cause extension. 


Shit 


sceith 


vomi 


Shala 


salach 


sad. 


shiol 


siol 


family, nation. 


Shne 


sen 


a net. 


Shok, to dig, 


sok, a colter. 





150 



CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 



EGYPTIAN. 


IRISH. 




ENGLISH 


Shot, hard 


sead, adamant. 






Shorn, heat 


Samh,thesun, samhra. 


heat. 


Eh an shorn, beginning of spring 


samh fuinn, the 


end of 


summer, 




autumn. 




Phikohi, a eaver's 


Sigheach, whence Sig- 




cylinder, 


him to weave 


Sighe- 






doir, a a weaver. 




Phos 


fos 




to be much. 


Phota, anus, podes, 


putog, rectum. 






Chello 


cailleach 




old. 


Chellod 


calladh 




a valley. 


Ched-ched, to investigate j 
to scutinize | 


cead, a Judge. 






Cheibi, covering, roof, 


caban, hou9e. 






Chok, to militate, 


battle, war. 






Chem chem, consultation, 


seim-loir 




a counsellor. 


Hel.halai, to fly, 


eol-air, a hawk, 


Ealan, 






a 


swan. 




Sihap, to judge 


seibti, a judge. 






Chesh 


ceasam 




to torment. 


Hli 


eile 




anyone. 


Hop, chop, nuptials, 


coib, dowery. 






Hra, chra 


cru 




appearance. 


Hob 


obar 




work. 


Hot, to navigate 


cot 




a barge, ship. 


Hot 


cait-se 




it behoves. 


Ghal, to deposit with anyone, 


geall, a pledge. 






Gho, to announce, 


goch-aire, 




master of ceremonies 


Ghaph 


gamh-ra 




winter. 


Ghin, action 


ghnim, to act. 






Ghinnan, 


gni 




appearance. 


Ghoi 


Uige 




a ship. 


Ghiphe 


gabh 




to possess. 


Ghro 


cro 




victory, spoil. 


Flak, supplication, 


fleacht, 




adoration. 


Gratia, religion, 


garait, 




holy. 



The Egyptian and Arabic Nonienclator, whence many of those 
words are derived, was found by Petrus a Valle, in the year 1615, 
near Cairo, in the hands of some peasants, who did not know its 
value. Peter transmitted it to Rome where Kircher found it and 
published it with a Latin translation annexed. By Peter's account 
it contains many old Egyptian words, sacred and profane, now 
grown obsolete to the Egyptians themselves ; but he could form no 
idea of when it was compiled. It is certainly an interesting and 
valuable document and is often referred to by Dr. Woide in his 
Coptic Dictionary. In itself or in the works in which it is em- 
bodied it doubtless greatly assisted Champollion in making out his 
hieroglyphical Dictionary, &c, the latter being really the founda- 
tion for what we have in the way of Egyptian lexicography in Bun- 
sen's works. 





CAUCASIA. 




CIECAS» 


IRISH. 


ENGLISH. 


Yada 


daid 


lather. 


Tana 


nain 


mother. 


T,ha 


Ti-mor 


God. 


Teelay 


eile 


people. 


Mak 


mac 


voice. 


Chaaaa 


ceas 


love. 


Digga, Dweega, Ddaga, 


Dagh-dae 


sun. 


Maza, Mazay 


mios, month 


moon. 


Gjee 


gaeth, pron. Gwee 


wind. 


Jeem-akva 


gamhra 


winter. 


Khaoo 


Go 


Sea. 


Aslika 


eiskir 


hill. 


Kooa 


cuih 


valleys. 


Eitter 


ridire, reataire 


a knight. 



151 



In the country of the Caucasus, in that space between the Black 
and the Caspian Seas, there are said to be a great number of dialects, 
according to some there are in Dioscurias alone about three hun- 
dred, all, however, dialects of the same language. We find very 
little about this country in the Eoman authors, excepting what they 
learned from Pompey's officers, who entered it from Armenia, 
fought the Albanians and Iberians and then advanced in pursuit of 
Mithridates as far as the mouth of the Phasis, where they met Ser- 
vilius with the Roman fleet. In the reign of the empress Catherine 
of Russia Prof. Guldenstaedt was sent to Mount Caucasus with 
orders to traverse these wild regions in various directions; to trace 
the rivers to the sources; to take astronomical observations; to 
examine into the natural history of the country; and to collect 
vocabularies of all the dialects he might meet with so as to form a 
general classification of all the nations comprehended between the 
Euxine and the Caspian Seas. The result of his researches shows 
that there are in this district of country at least seven distinct na- 
tions ; each speaking as he says, a different language. These 
are: — 

1. The Tartars. 



2. 


ti 


Abe has. 


3. 


it 


Circassians. 


4. 


i i 


Ossi or Osseti 


5. 


C< 


Kisti. 


6. 


i t 


Leguis. 


7. 


< t 


Georgians. 



Not only in the languages but the history of these peoples there 
are many correspondences found with the ancient Irish which it is 
not necessary to specify here. 



152 



CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 



The Osseti are called Cusha by the Circassians ; their language 
has some analogy with the Persian ; that of one tribe seems to be 
a dialect of that language. One of the districts is' called Archoti. 
Their history is little known, as likewise that of the Kisti, whose 
dialects are said to have but little analogy with any known language. 
The country of the Lesguis is called by the Georgians indifferently 
Lesguistau and Daghestan. Gulclenstaedt has remarked in their 
language eight different dialects and has classed their tribes in con- 
formity to this observation. 



OSSI. 


IRISH. 


ENGLISH. 


Tsaoo 


Tuiseach, originator ) 
creator | 


God 


Feeday 


At hair, Arm 


Father. 


Arv 


Earc 


Heaven. 


Mad, Emmad-Madai 


Maidh, Maidhean, 
Virgin. 


Mother. 


Moee, Emmaee 


Mogh, a man, husband 


Husband. 


Oos, Koos, Gos 


Gushen, to hear; Eist, 
to hear. 


Ear. 


Oouey 


Aim, eye, 


Sight. 


Kalas 


Cal, 


Voice. 


Nora 


Ainm 


Name. 


Ekkar, keery 


Eigh, gar 


Cry. 


Mard 


Marbh, Mort 


Death. 


Khoor, kor 


Cearo 


Sun. 


Meyee, Ma-yet 


Mi, month 


Moon. 


Bahad 


Bad 


Wind. 


Wahran 


Fhearain 


Rain. 


Eehk 


Oichreog, frost ; Oic- 
har, show. 


Ice, HaJl. 


Bon 


Ban, sun 


Day. 


Az, Ans 


Aes, Aos, an Aze J 
An, Eang, a year, j 


Year. 


Foord 


Fearg, sea, bay, 


Sea. 


Keer 


Crin 


Clay. 


Khokh 


Coic 


Mountain. 


Buyl 


Bull 


Bull. 


Art, 


Art, God; Arc, sun 


Fire. 


Tsah-kar 


Teas 


Heat. 


Ooleyaoo, Arzond 


All, Ard 


Height. 


Door 


Dorn, a sling-stone 


Stone. 


Khaa 


Ousa, sacred grass, 


Grass. 


Ballaa 


Bile 


Tree. 


KISTI. 


ENGLISH. 


IKISH. 


Dyaly, Dyala 


God 


Duille, Duilleamh, Buillcanihain. 


Da 


Father 


Daiil, dad. 


Naana, nana 


Mother 


Viln, S a i ".-;. 


Ya 


Son 


Ua. 


Syee 


Wife 


Seite. 


Naakh 


People 


Neach, any one. 


Korto, Kartay 


Head 


Gart. 


Kood] 


Hair 


Ceas. 


Gwaala 


Elbow- 


Gual, shoulder. 


Kog, kok 


Foot 


Cos. 


Gooala 


Knee 


Glun. 







CAUCASIA. 




KI8TI. 




ENGLISH. 


hush. 


Tebk 




Bone 


Tec. 


Garee 




Cry 


Gar. 


Oon 




Pain 


Hone, grief. 


Neets 




Force 


Neart. 


Malyk 




Sun 


Mole. 


Bute, Boosh 


Moon 


The father of Bndha was regent of 








the moon. Sir Wm. JoneB. 


Syed 




Star 


Sidh, Siderial Genius. 


Fooo 




Wind 


Fo, Fa. 


Deh, Den 


Day 


Dia. 


Soorey, 


Oorioo 


Morning 


Soir, Oir, Aurora. 


Boossoo 


, Buyta 


Night 


Be. 


Seyeery 




Evening 


Siar, West, setting sun. 


Lettech, 


Latta 


Earth 


T, lacht ; Arab, Latat. 


Foort 




Sea 


Fearg. 


Ker 




Clay 


Cria. 


Beerd 




Moutain 


Braid, Braid-Albaln. 


Taoo 




Heat 


Te. 


Latteh 




Breadth 


Leithead. 


Toolah, 


kera 


Stone 


Doileog, Carraig, car. 



Georgia comprehends the ancient Iberia, Colchis, and perhaps a 
part of Albania ; as the province of Caket, in the old Georgian 
language, is said to have been named Albon.* They have received 
their present name from their attachment to St. George, the tutel- 
ary saint of the.se countries. 

" The whole country is so extremely beautiful that some fancifu? 
travelers have imagined they had there found the situation of the 
garden of Eden. The hills are covered with forests of oak, ash, 
beech, chestnuts, walnuts and elms, encircled with vines, growing 
perfectly wild, but producing vast quantities of grapes. From these 
is annually made as much wine as is necessary for the yearly con- 
sumption ; the remainder are left to rot on the vines. Cotton 
grows spontaneously as well as the finest European fruit trees. 
Rice, wheat, millet, hemp and flax are raised on the plains almost 
without culture. The valleys afford the finest pasturage in the 
world; the rivers are full of fish, the mountains abound in miner- 
als and the climate is delicious." 

" There are in Georgia considerable numbers of Jews, called in 
the language of the country Una. Some have villages of their own 
and others are mixed with the Georgian, Armenian and Tahtar in- 
habitants, but never with the Osseti. They subsist principally by 
agriculture and raising of cattle, very few of them being employed 
in trade. Their language is divided into three dialects, the Car- 



* The most eastern province 19 Caket. Iberia or Hibernia and Albania signify western and 
eastern respectively. The Guels of Erin and of North Britain trace their ancestry back to 
those parts. Many examples of local names corresponding to the ancient Irish might be ad- 
duced from those regions. 



154 



CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 



duel, the Imretian an J the Suaneti, which appear as extraordinary 
as those of the Lesguis : — 







Vocabulary. 








CAHDUEL. 


IMRETIAN. 


SUANETI. 


inisii. 


God 


Gmerty 


Horomti 


Gherbet. 




Heaven 


Tsah 


Tsah 


Tsah 


Tsaoo in Ossi. 


Father 


Mamma 


Mooma 


Moo 


Mo, a man. 


Mother 


Dedda 


Deeda 


Dee 


Did, a teat. 
Heb. Dad, Mamma 


Son 


Shylly 


Skooa 


Yezzag 


Siol, race, son. 


Daught 


Kaly 


Ozoory 


Zoonah 


Caile, girl. 


Girl 


Kally 


Ozoory 


Soorag 


Cailin 


Sun 


Myeh 


Bja 


Meej 


Bash. 


Moon 


Mtwary 


Toota 


Mij 


Mi, mios, month. 



On what is determined to be a very improper choice of words, 
made by Guldenstaedt from the fourteen dialects of the Caucasus, 
there are forty-three similar in letter and sense to the old Irish. 
The sun, for example, in the Circassian is Ddaga, in the old Gaelic 
Daghdae, corresponding to the Dughda-rath of the burnt chariot, 
or the Phoebus of the Brahmins. In the Ossi it is named Khoor, 
in Old Gaelic Kearo, which latter is exchangeable with Daghdae, and 
is the same with the Arabic and Persian Khoor, Khur, or Khawar. 
In the Antshong dialect of the Lesguis the sun is named Bauk, in 
old Gaelic Bagh, which is an old Persian word, as we learn from 
Moses Choronensis, as follows: "When the Persians conquered 
Armenia the mountain on which they lighted the perpetual fire was 
called Baghaven, from Bagh, fire, the sun and Aven a mountain." 
(Hist. Armenia 1. 1, c. 74.) Aven is the old Gaelic Amhan, a river, 
which we see here signifies a mountain. The word Amun in the 
Egyptian and Hebrew has for one of its meanings a pillar; but it 
is evident that in ancient times it was a name for the river Nile, and 
of a high place or mountain as well as of the God worshiped on 
that high place, namely the sun. So the word Nile was not only a 
name for the river but for the sun, for which another equivalent, 
well known form w'as Sechar, the Hebrew Seir or Hor, a name ap- 
plied to a mountain, a high, or rough place, to a teiaple, and to the 
sun. It is the same with the Gaelic, Siar, and Kearo, and with the 
Arabic and Persian Khur, Khawar, as above. And so an Egyptian 
name for the Nile, Ameiri (Am-iara), is a precise equivalent to the 
Gaelic and Hindu Nial, as meaning blue. 

As to the origin of the people called Hunns I may say that the 



THE HUNNS. 155 

component Hind in Hindu is evidently the same with the name 
Hunn. That the Hunns were of Indo-Scythic origin appears 
plainly in a passage of Mr. Wilkin's Asiatic Researches (vol. I, p. 
136), where it speaks of that people as having possessed "the 
Seagirt throne," pointing to Scvthia-Lymirica or Maratirae Scythia. 
Hindu=Sindu=Cindu=Cunn=Hunn = in full Gaelic Cathan-dhaebh 
pronounced Con-yu, Conn or, with the S prefixed, Schan-dhu = 
Scandin in Scandinavia. There must in an early age have been a 
great emigration of those people northwards from Hindostan. These 
are the people who as well as their distant kindred, the Goths, so 
effectually assisted to the downfall of the Roman empire. 

Farther as to Robert Bruce and the Rise of the House op 
Steward ; the Shaws, &c. 

The house of Steward, as said before, was a continuation of the line 
of regular, hereditary Gaelic Kings. In the interval between Alex- 
ander III. and James I., or for two generations, Scotland was much 
disturbed by invasions led by the Norman Kings of England. For 
a period during this interval William Wallace, who did not claim 
kinship with the royal stock, strove very effectually for the free- 
dom of his country. The history of Scotland, therefore, for these 
two generations, exhibits a very unsettled state of affairs and has 
been written by Fordun, Barbour, de Wyntoun and others rather 
in the style of the historical romance than in that of history proper. 
The picture given of Robert Bruce is much like that given in the 
Scriptures of King David and by some historians he has been com- 
pared to Judas Maccabeus and Joshua. In this historical romance 
John Baliol and Robert Bruce are two names standing for the same 
man at different periods and in different circumstances. Of this 
man the Gaelic name was Aengus. In like manner Edward Baliol, 
David Bruce and Robert III, were three names given in the 
romance to the son and successor of this Aengus, whose real, Gaelic 
name was Eoghan, in English, John. 

The critic perceives that at James I, the regular history may be 
said to commence, although the records of his reign and those, of the 
reigns after him, even down to that of James VI, are much inter- 
mixed with the romantic. John de Fordun, frequently before 
mentioned, was the author of this continued historical romance down 



156 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

to the death of James I: and this romantic style was practiced by 
Bowar, his continuator, by the author of the Auchinleck Chronicle 
and by many other historical writers, English as well as Scotch, to a 
greater or less degree. Buchanan appears to have adopted all those 
romantic tales as if real history without using that discrimination 
which is the duty of the historian to exercise. And how comes it 
to pass even at the present day that the size of the book is too often 
considered rather than the facts it contains, although in the case of 
some books one or a. few simple facts being known overthrows all 
the theories and leaves no use for the volume. Even at the present 
day the man who cleverly concocts and arranges his plot and thereon 
builds up a large volume ot historical romance, having the appear- 
ance of real history, is by the populace who never criticise, and 
even by many of our so called critics pronounced the man of 
" ability," the " author," though he be in reality only the author 
of fiction or of a false representation of history. A scene in the 
history for example represents Bruce as slaving " the red John 
Comyn " and as being seconded or assisted in that act by a chief 
named Kirknatrick. But the chronology did not allow any of the 
septs of the Kirkpatricks afterwards to discover which chief of that 
name it could have been who did that fatal deed, and the real state 
of the case being known shows that in this presentation there may 
be more allegory than history. 

But the fair historical romance has, of course, the merit of being 
set forth in such a way as to leave no doubt in the mind of the 
honest critic that it is largely of a fictitious character ; that is, the 
style and statement enables the critic to clearly perceive that the 
author intends to indicate, however obscurely, that although his 
literary production is founded on facts, namely, the facts of the 
history proper, it yet is, as to its great bulk, of a fictitious character. 
In the case, for example, of Robert Bruce, who is said to have been 
grandson of a Robert Bruce, who was a competitor for the crown 
in 1286 A. D., after the death of Alexander III, and is yet said to 
have died in 1329 at the age of 55 years one easily perceives that 
the statement of three generations in that period is improbable, 
although two might seem fairly implied. Secondly, in his expedi- 
tion to the Western Isles in 1315 Bruce is represented as accom- 
panied by his son-in-law, the Steward of Scotland. This, if of 
literal intrepretation, would imply the existence of four successive 
generations in 29 years, viz, "Bruce, the competitor" in 1286; 



STEWARD. 157 

Bruce, " the hero," his grandson, and the daughter of the latter 
represented here as a wife in 1315. Nay, more, there are five gener- 
ations implied for thetime, for in this same year, 1315-16, this wife, 
the daughter of Robert Bruce, is represented as having given birth 
to a son and as having herself died almost immediately after having 
been delivered.* Here then we have five scccessive generations 
represented in the space of thirty years after the death of Alex- 
ander III, (1285-1316 ), at which age (thirty years) some of our 
young men are yet mere boys. 

Moreover, David Bruce, the son and successor of Robert, the his- 
torians represent as having been married at the age of 5 years, his 
bride, Joanna of England, being in her 7th ; and this marriage takes 
place in 1329, the year in which Robert Bruce dies. The youthful 
couple then go to Fiance and abide there till 1342, when they return 
to Scotland. During this period there is, of course, represented an 
interregnum. Speaking of the return of David and his wife from 
France, Tytler says : " The period immediately following the arri- 
val of David in his dominions, till we reach the battle of Durham 
(1342-46) is undistinguished by any event of importance." This 
means, in my understanding, that the father of the man David was 
yet alive and in place. The battle of Durham, which was a real 
battle, and not a battle merely on paper, as that, for example, so- 
called, of Dupplin, of Halidon Hill, or of the " Clans of 
Scotland," was fought in 1346 A. D., which clearly appears 
to have been the first year of the second successor of Alex- 
ander III as king of Scotland. King Eoghan ( here called David II, 
and elsewhere Robert III), the grandson and second successor of 
Alexander III, now came into his father's position and appears 
immediately to have prepared for war with Edward III, of Eng- 
land. And to show how the true chronology and succession fit 
each other here I quote from the " History of Mackintosh and Clan 
Chathan," p. 78, as follows : " After a long chiefship, marked by 
important events in the history of the clan and the country at 
large, Angus died in 1345, in the 77th year of his age." It then 
enumerates seven sons of Angus as follows : William (first, of 
course, because through him descends the house of Mackintosh, of 
which the historian particularly treated; but he was evidently a 
younger son of Angus) ; John (Eoghan) ; Angus Og (junior) ; Mal- 



Tytler Hist, of Scot. 1. 304-6; Fordun a Goodal, Bk. XII. c. 25; Hailes II. 81. * 



158 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

colm and Ferchard, both killed at the battle of Durham in 1346 ; 
Duncan and Shaw ; besides two daughters. Now, this Angus, 
whom the History of Mackintosh represents as the sixth chief of 
that clan, was, as a matter of fact, a son of Ferchard, whom the 
historians enter as Alexander III. But although he were the legal 
king of Scotland, according to the ancient constitution of that 
country, we can hardly say he was a de facto king, for the history 
gives us to understand that in his youth he was kept out of his 
properties and rights by the Comyns (people of his own ancestral 
stock evidently, the men in power, as the name in Gaelic imports). 
And in 1296 A. D., we know, Edward I, of England, overthrew 
the old government and compelled the thanes and chief men of the 
kingdom to swear fealty to himself as the superior king of Scot- 
land. In this condition of a sub-kingdom Scotland remained until 
well on in the life of Eoghau ; i. e , David II; i.e., Robert III, or 
say till about 1357, altogether for about 60 } r ears. This is true in 
general, — the story of the Scottish success at Bannockburn and 
others such, which appear to relieve the dark shades of the picture, 
and doubtless did, to some extent, relieve the country from oppres- 
sion, — to the contrary notwithstanding. 

From this period the historians, whether through policy or 
otherwise, have given the Saxon appellation of Steward to the 
kings of Scotland, and this appellation has become the surname of 
some families descended from Eoghan, i.e., Robert III and from 
his brothers, the sons of Walter, the Stewards so called, but really 
of ^Eugus, son of Ferchard. 

But, on the other hand, it is equally true that Scotland did not 
continue long in such a completely subject state to the English 
Normans as did Wales and Ireland. The Scotts appear to have 
endeavored to oust those oppressors whenever opportunity offered. 

The history of Mcintosh represents Angus as having married the 
heiress of Clan Conn (Gaelic Chathan) in 1291 A. D., when he was 
23 years of age, and as having resided in Tor Castle, in Lochaber, 
from that time till 1308, consequent upon " the Comyns" having 
seized upon his lands and several of his hereditary residences, 
among others mentioned, the castle of Inverness. He then removes 
with his wife to the Castle of Loch an Eilan in Rothiemurchus, and 
his removal across the island to this place the history connects with 
the expedition of Bruce against " the Comyns." Its words in this 
•«onuection are : " The power of the Comyns increasing, Aengus 



STEWARD. 159 

saw himself unable to oppose them, and remained in Lochaber till 
1308, when King Robert Bruce surprised and overthrew the garri- 
son of Inverness." Such is the way the information is conveyed ; 
but it is plain, first, that Aengus himself is the Robert Bruce who 
«« overthrew the garrison of Inverness ;" and secondly, that he is a 
Comyn; for the castle of Rothiemnrchus, to which he now moved, 
was one of the well known residences of the Coniyns, i.e. of the 
ruling family, until a comparatively recent date ; and Aengus him- 
self was the ancestor of all the kings of Scotland who came after 
him excepting James VI. The castle of Rothiemurchus, to which 
Angus now removed, was, in that age, one of the principal royal 
residences, which would indicate Angus to have been now, to some 
extent, recognized as king. We learn from the History of Mackin- 
tosh, that it was a residence of the father and grand-father of 
Angus and of the descendants of ^Engus in the Seventh degree. 
Under the head of Ferquhard, its 5th chief, it says : " Before he 
beeame chief, he lived in Rothiemurchus." After he became king, 
he, of course, would remove his residence to the castle or palace of 
Sterling, which was, in that age, the seat of the executive of the 
kingdom. In Rothiemurchus, the history represents Ferquhard 
as beset on all sides by the Comyns, much as we find King David 
to have been by the Philistines. But the Origines, properly in- 
quired into, show the Caphtorim to have given that celebrated line 
of Kings to Judah, of whom David (Duff) was chief; and, in a sim- 
ilar way, that the "Comyns" were the royal stock of Scotland, of 
which country this Ferquhard was a king, under the title of Alex- 
ander III. 

Here, then, we find Angus and his father residing in the castle of 
Rothiemurchus ; but the History of Mackintosh does not represent 
William, that son of Aengus, through whom the Mackintoshes de- 
scend, as having had his residence in Rothiemurchus, but at " Conn- 
age in Petty," a place deemed of much less importance; and 
this circumstance would, on the whole, indicate, first, the said 
William to have been a younger son of Angus; and, secondly, that 
the family, so-called, of Mackintosh, branched out from the royal 
stock of Scotland, with the son of that man called, in the history, 
Robert Bruce. To the first son of Angus, namely, Eoghan, the 
heir to the kingdom, Rothiemurchus would pertain as his private 
residence. 

The reader will easily Derceive. from the whole exhibit, that to 



160 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISIORT. 

think of Bruce as any other man than Angus himself would be 
nonsensical ; otherwise we have the hero and king, Robert Bruce, 
campaigning through the country, having as his chief business to 
conquer the principal royal residences of the kingdom, and deliver 
them over to Angus and his fair wife, the heiress of Clan Conu, to 
live in. 

It would not be proper to conceal that the History of Mackintosh 
represents Angus as having been born before the marriage of his 
parents, and, he being the only son left by Ferquhard, or Alexander 
III., this might have been the cause why some of his own family, 
uncles, cousins, etc., opposed his elevation. But under his name 
of Robert Bruce we see his elevation, in the minds of the Scottish 
people, to the position which he claimed, that of the rightful king 
of Scotland, while, at the same time, we behold the downfall of his 
opponents. Under the name of Robert Bruce, he is thought of as a 
Norman ; but this he could have been only in the sense of his 
mother's family of the Isles, with whom he was brought up, being 
reputed Normans. The history aforementioned represents Angus 
as having been preseut with Bruce at the battle of Bannockburn, 
and as very effectually assisting to the achievement of that cele- 
brated victory : It also represents him as campaigning into England 
in 1318-19, in company with Randolf, Earl of Moray, and the "Good 
Sir James Douglas." The historians (see Tytler 1, p. 319-20), 
record an expedition of the Scotts into England in 1318 A. D., from 
which they are said to have returned with great booty and a large 
number of prisoners; and they record another in 1319, which they 
represent also as resulting favorably to the Scotts. In relation to 
this latter, Tytler (1, p. 329) says : " Three hundred Ecclesiastics 
fell in this battle, from which circumstance, and in allusion to the 
prelates who led the troops, it was denominated, in the rude pleas- 
antry of the times, the Chapter of Mytton." There might, in that 
age, have been at times some very effectual raids made over the 
borders by powerful parties, who were closely attached to the -old 
hereditary government of the country and discontented with the 
Norman-English claim of superiority. But that claim did then 
exist, and was enforced in so far as those foreign potentates could 
continue to enforce it. 

That there may have been a chief then living in Scotland whose 
name was Robert Bruce, is not here either asserted or denied; but 
there never was a king of Scotland of that name- and all that has 



STEWARD. 161 

been written concerning a king so called, either referred to a man 
of another name, who was son to Alexander III, or is fiction made 
out of whole cloth, all recorded Excommunications, Papal 
Bulls, etc., and all grants to religious foundations by 
a king so called on paper, to the contrary notwithstanding. 
When, therefore, it is said in the book of pedigrees, edited 
by Mr. Chas. F. Browning, and published by Porter & 
Coates, of Philadelphia, that President Andrew Jackson, for exam- 
ple, was descended from King Robert Bruce, through Robert II, 
(Stewart) it simply says that he was descended from Angus, the 
son of Alexander III, whom the hist orical Romancists have written 
down as Robert Bruce and Robert II : And when it is said therein, 
also, that the Confederate General, Robert E. Lee, and his nephew, 
the present Governor of Virginia, descended from the Steward 
Kings it simply says that they descend from Alexander III, through 
his son, Aengus, and from the house, so called, of Corny n. 

In the Historical Romance * we meet continually with characters 
in whose varying circumstances, states and conditions we take a 
deep interest. We accompany them here and there participating 
in or making our own their joys and their sorrows. And it is, 
perhaps, as well that all are not disposed to be critics; for being 
such they would be likely to take pains to acquire a knowledge of 
the situation or nature of the subject beforehand, and so, reflecting 
how easy it is to create and to destroy, by ones or by multitudes, 
merely on paper, would have their interest in the ideal subjects 
greatly diminished and might take too great an interest in politics, 
or spend too much of their time, lawyer-like, in ungraciously criti- 
cising one another. 

In all romances or novels there has to be a plot and the inven- 
tion and arrangement of this plot constitutes much of the author's 
work. In the execution of this plot the author is a creator abso- 
lute, originating or destroying at pleasure single ones or multitudes. 
The historical romance is supposed to be founded on real history 
of which we have an illustration in this which we are now con- 
sidering. 

In the names John Baliol, Robert Bruce and the High Steward 
of Scotland, we have three designations of the same man and have 
not yet arrived at his baptismal name. Under the name of John 



* On the subject of the Historical Romance, I proved to be a prize essayist in a 
competition many years ago in Union College. 
11 — d 



1C2 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

Baliol, he yields too easily to Edward 1st his countries' liberties 
and his personal rights, and consequently the name John is, in the 
after times, deemed unauspicious and unpopular among the Scotch- 
Under the name of Robert Bruce he is the self-denying champion 
who goes forward in his countries' cause, fights her battles and to 
some extent, proves her savior; consequently, in the aftertimes, 
the name Robert is, among the Scotch, deemed auspicious and pop- 
ular. While under the name Aengus, which seems to have been an 
equivalent for tne name Dull* or MacDuff, he appears as the " dark 
horse" of the genealogical lists. Aengus, however, appears in 
this case to have been the baptismal name, but some think this 
exehangable with the form Dunchadh, i. e., Eachdhuin, Eachan or 
John. 

Edward Baliol and David Bruce (i. e. David II.,) and Robert 
III, may be thought of as different designations for the same son 
and successor of Aengus, whose baptismal name was Eoghan 
(John). Under these different names there are different ideas en- 
tertained of the man ; the name Baliol is, of course, desecrated, 
while under the names of David 11, and Robert III, his memory is 
respected and his real history is mostly given. That there may 
have been a powerful chief in Scotland in that age of the name of 
Baliol this discussion does not either assert or deny ; but there 
never was a King of Scotland of the name of Baliol. 



The Shaws, &c. 

Some might think the Shaws, since they have sprung from the 
same stock as Mackintosh, were of descent from Shaw, son of the 
above Aengus ; but their history does not ascribe to the clans Shaw 
a descent from him, but deduces their name from Seach, a great 
grandson of this Aengus, whom I find to have been James II. 
In his description of James II, Tytler (Vol. Ill, p. 310) says: 
" The person of this prince was robust and well adapted for those 
warlike and knightly exercises, in which he is said to have excelled. 
His countenance was mild and intelligent, but deformed by a large 
red mark on the cheek, which has given him amongst contemporary 
chroniclers the surname of James with the fiery face." So Scott: 
" Tales of a Grandfather," I. 242. 

Our family history says of the same man, under a Gaelic form 
of name by which he is entered by the chroniclers: " The name 



STEWARD. 163 

Scheabheag implies that Shaw was of short stature ; but he is also 
frequently designated Mor (great), no doubt, on account of his 
martial reputation. Another of his most common appellations was 
Sgorfhiachlach (pronounced Coriachlich) from the prominent 
teeth, which distinguished his features." 

I doubt not the Gaelic word given in Our Family History affords 
the true key to the proper interpretation of this facial phenomenon, 
which appears to have arisen from some prominent teeth the man 
had that made a perceptible mark on his face, somewhat similar to 
a reddish mole, wart or scar. Secondly, the form of name Sea- 
bhag or Seabhag, which comes into English in the forms Shaw, 
Haw or Hawkins, is clearly exchangeable with Seamhas (Eng. 
James), the b and m on the one hand and the g and s on the other, 
being interchanged with each other. In Gaelic Beag means little, 
child, chief; and mas, the root of our word masculine, is another 
form for mac, a son, so that Seabhag and Seamhas are clearly 
equivalent forms. 

The following tabulation will illustrate my idea of the origin and 
show the steps in the genealogical succession of the Kings of Scot- 
land from Alexander III, who was son of Alexander 11, to James 
VI, who was son of Mary queen of Scots, and lord Darnly, (a 
man of the same male descent as Alexander III) and who became 
James I of England. I begin with No. 19 of my list on page 2. 

17. Ferchard i. e., Alexander III, i. e., the Steward of Scotland, i. e., " Robert 
Bruce, the competition" 

16. Aengus i. e., Robert 11, (Bruce) i. e., John (Baliol) i. e., Walter, the 
Steward of Scotland: 

15. Eoghan or Ian i. e., David II (Bruce), i.e., Edward (Baliol), i.e., Robert III, 
i.e., the Steward of Scotland: 

14. Gilchrist i. e„ James I, i. e., the Steward, &c. 

13. Seachi. e., Seamhas t*. e,, James II, i. e., the Steward, &c. 

12, Seamhas i. e., James III, i. e., the Steward &c. 



11. Adhamh son of 
&c, 
as on p. 2. 



James IV son, 
James V son, 
Mary daughter, 
| James VI son and 1st of England. 



From our No. 12, (James III) has proceeded the Shaws, so 
called of Sauchie in Stirlingshire. He himself is the "James 
Shaw," i. e., James son of Shaw, of Sauchie" spoken of under 
the reign of James III. (See, for Ex., Tytler III, p. 420, and 
Lindsay, of Pitscottie, I 112). From a younger son of his, named 



164 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

Adam, descends the Shaws of Tordarrach (Oaky Hill), Inverness- 
Shire. This Adam is No. 11 of my list, p. 2, and of me, the writer, 
he is ninth ancestor. Two of the ancestors in the list from him to 
me had their residence in Ireland. 

The accounts given in the histories of the battle of Sauchie Burn 
and the death in consequence thereof of James III., is of the 
romantic order and not historical. He was himself the Shaw, 
spoken of in lhis connection, as " the governor of the castle of 
Stirling," which was his executive residence. Another principal 
residence of his and of his ancestors and which descended to his 
children, was the castle of Loch an Eilan in Eothiemurchus men- 
tioned above. He is the ancestor of the Shaws, so called of 
Eothiemurchus. As head of Rothiemurchus and of the claD 
Shaw there located he is, in the family history, designated Alister 
Ciar, that is, «' Alexander the brown." It appears that, in that 
ao-e Seach, which is an equivalent for Alexander, was used as a 
short name for the forms Seamhas (James) and Seachan (John). 
It is, of course, the same root name, and this is proved by the fact 
of the Hebrew letter Samech having the same meaning as Seth or 
Sem (pronounced ShenO, namely, a pillar or the Sun, and that the 
name Israel, which is Saethrael, is exchangeable with Jacob, which 
is James. It, moreover, appears plain from the style and sub- 
stance of the narratire that the Alexander, duke of Albany, spoken 
of under this reism as brother of James III, was no other than this 
James himself, in certain conditions and circumstances of his life. 
In the circumstances of the contemporary reigns of this Scottish 
king and Edward IV of England in their relations to each other we 
seem to have repeated some of the historical experiences which we 
meet with in the history of Scotland in the interval between the 
death of Alexander III and the accession of James I. In his gen- 
eral description of James III. Tytler (III. 440) says as to his 
color : " His deep brown complexion and black hair resembled the 
hue rather of the warmer climates of the south than that which we 
meet in colder climates." The adjective Ciar, by which the family 
history distinguishes its Alister, means dark brown. That record 
also informs us that Alister left to his son John Rothiemurchus 
who, in turn, left it to his son Alan, &c. Judging by the map the 
castles of Sterling and Rothiemurcus are about 75 miles apart, the 
county of Perth intervening. But even in the olden times this 
was not deemed a great distance ; for Tytler relates how that one 



STEWARD. 165 

of those Jameses, of whom we are treating, viz., James IV, 
"thought little of throwing himself on his horse and ridino- 
100 miles without drawing bridle." He speaks of him once 
having rode from the castle of Stirling to the church of St. 
Duthach in Ross-Shire and performed his devotions. Some of the Far- 
quarsons, whoare of the same origin as the Shaws of Rothiemurchus, 
appear to call Alister a Comyn of the same family as that of Altyre. - 
As descriptive of the residence in Rothiemurchus, of which we are 
now speaking and to which, we have seen above, Angus and his wife 
moved in 1308, 1 quote the following from the History of Macintosh, 
pgs. 83-4: "The whole district of Rothiemurchus abounds in 
grandeur and loveliness, but nowhere are these found in such pro- 
fusion as about the Doune, where the Spey rolls rapidly along pine- 
clad glades and verdant sward, and Loch an Eilan sleeps in wild 
beauty under the shadow of the giant Cairngorm. 'The great 
magician himself, in his most imaginative mood,' says one, could 
not have conjured up a lovelier spot. Hemmed in by mountain, 
rock and wood — the former towering to a great height, the latter 
dipping into the water — Loch an Eilan truly realizes the poetical 
image of a mirror set in a deep and gorgeous frame." 

" Marvell'd Sir David of the Mount; 
Then learn'd in story, 'gan recount 
Such chauce had happ'd of old 
When ouce, near Norham there did fight 
A 6pectre fell of fiendish might, 
In likeness of a Scottish knight, 
With Brian Bulraer bold, 
Aud traiu'd him nigh to disallow 
The aid of his baptismal vow. 
And such a phantom, too, 'tis said, 
With highland broadsword, targe and plaid 
Aud Augers, red with gore, 
Is seen in Eothiemurcus glade, 
Or where the sable pine-trees shade 
Dark Tomantoul and Auchnaslaid, 
Dromouchty or Gleumore." 

Scott's "Marmion:" Canto Fourth, Stanza XXII. 

Hall, in his English Chronicle, which embraces the history of 
that country from Henry III, to Henry VIII, both inclusive, and 
who himself wrote in the time of Edward VI, claims (p. 850) that 
there is proof in written documents or " instruments," as he terms 
them, of Kings of Scotland having from time to time paid horn- 



166 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

age to Kings of England ; while, on the other hand, the Scottish 
historians unanimously claim that the homages spoken of were 
rendered only on account of territories held by them within the 
bounds of England. 

Hall also claims (p. 853) that " divers of those instrum ents had 
before his time been stolen from the English Treasury by the 
Scotch" (only think of it, pray; "Stolen from the English 
Treasury by the Scotch !") " instruments which neverthelesse were 
after recouered againe." He thereupon gives the form of one of 
those written "instruments," undoubtedly one of those he meant 
had been, " stolen and recovered again," which begins thus: "I, 
Ihon N., King of Scottes." This, of course, signifies John 
Baliol, that being the only name John, on record in the regal line 
of the Scottes, the King whose baptismal name was John, as the 
historians tell us, having been entered as Robert. * And in Graf- 
ton's Chronicle (I. 294) the whole name, John Baliol, is entered. 
Grafton mentions that it was he who " buylded " Baliol College at 
Oxford ! 

All this indicates the name, John Baliol, and the account of the 
homage to Edward 1st, put to the credit of that name to have been 
a fiction, most likely of the Scotts themselves, that is, of John de 
Fordun or some of his followers ; as also the names, Edward Baliol 
and David Bruce, with the accounts of homage put to the credit of 
these names to have been fictions. Hall does not represent Robert 
Bruce as having performed homage to any one, but as a usurper 
against John Baliol ; nor does he or Grafton enter any Scottish King 
under the name Robertas rendering homage to a King of England. 
He begins, far back, about the year 900, and mentions some Kings 
of Scotts whose names I have never seen in any chronicle but his ; 
but perhaps they were chiefs of districts in Scotland near the En- 
glish borders. In his Kynald, however, as connected with King 
Edgar, in 977, A. D., I think I recognize Kenneth III or Mael- 
brighdi. Between Malcolm n, and MacBeth, whom, however, he 
also calls Malcolm, he mentions not Duncan. In 1068 he connects 
Malcolm III with William, the Conqueror, and in 1093 with Wil- 
liam Rufus, son to the Conqueror, in regard to a matter of homage. 
In the year 1100 he mentions Edgar, the son of Malcolm III, in 

*They did not enter their Kings of the same name in the original as I, II, III, 
etc., as the modern historians do, which has given rise to much confusion among 
interpreters. 



STEWARD. 167 

connection with Henry 1st of England in regard to a like mat- 
ter. The next he mentions in the same catalogue is David, Kyng 
of Scottes, in 1137. This indicates that the Saxon form Edgar, as 
here given, is equivalent to the Gaelic Ethach, Ethachfhair, or, sim- 
ply, Sethach, which all are equivalent forms in that language for 
our name Alexander ; and that the names Edgar and Alexander 
1st, which the histories represent as of brothers, who succeeded in 
order to the throne after the death of Malcolm III, refer to the 
same person. Secondly, between David, last mentioned, and 
Wyllyam, Kyng of Scottes, whom he mentions in connection with 
different Kings of England on several occasions, he mentions not 
the name Malcolm IV, which the Scottish historians insert before 
William and as his brother. This indicates the name William to be 
the English equivalent for the Gaelic Malcolm or Gillccalum, and 
the names Malcolm IV and William the "Lion " to have been varia- 
tions of the same name, referring to the same person. 

Thirdly he gives the two Alexanders as son and grandson of 
William, in this order, in their connection by homage, marriage, 
etc., with the Norman English, the first in 1216 and the last named 
in 1266, A. D. 

Fourthly, to Edward 1st, he enters JohnBaliol as paying homage 
in 1292; and Edward Baliol in 1326 as well as David Bruce in 1346 
as acting in a like relation to Edward III. After 1346 I find no 
mention of homage having been paid by the Scotch to the Norman 
English kings until 1423, when mention is made of James 1st hav- 
ing paid homage to Henry VI, of England as a part of the condi- 
tion of his liberation from captivity in England. 

He mentions, therefore, not any king by the name Robert as 
having paid homage to the English monarchs ; and the interval be- 
tween the two homages last mentioned, is 77 years (1346-1423). 
The homage mentioned as having been paid in 1346 was by king 
Eachan, son of Aengus, who is entered in the histories by the name 
Robert ; but I see the English chroniclers have entered him by his 
surname Duff or MacDuff, which in English is David. You see, 
therefore, John or Robert was his prenomen, but MacDuff, which 
is an equivalent for Mac Aengus, his surname. The family history 
gives us to understand that his father was called Aengus and also 
MacDuff. He came into his father's position in 1345-6; but when 
the history, left us by de Fordun, tells us that he was born in 1324 
A.D. we may, perhaps, conclude that, in connection with this date, 



168 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

he has in mind a fictitious character. It is not unlikely that this 
Jhon, the son of Aengus, was born much earlier. The historians 
represent him as a very aged man, at his death in 1406. His age is 
not given in any historian that I find, but I should not wonder if he 
were considerably over one hundred years of age at the time of his 
death, which is not an uncommon age for the Scotch to attain. 

In the description Ty tier (vol. 11, p. 453-5) gives of Robert III. 
we have represented a very aged and venerable man. This is of 
him in his old age, after he has, some time previously, heard of the 
murder of his son and heir, David, Duke of Rothsay ; and now 
there had come to his ears the news of the capture by the English 
on his way to France for safe keeping, of his younger son and 
heir, James, Earl of Carrick. The historian says as follows : " The 
aged king, already worn out by infirmity and now broken by dis- 
appointment and sorrow did not long survive the captivity of his 
son. It is said the melancholy news were brought to him as he was 
sitting down to supper in his palace at Rothsay in Bute; and that 
the effect was such upon his affectionate but feeble spirit that he 
drooped from that day forward, refused all sustenance and died 
soon after of a broken heart. His death took place on the 4th of 
April, 1406": "In person Robert was tall and of a princely pres- 
ence ; his countenance was somewhat florid, but pleasant and ani- 
mated ; whilst a beard of great length and silvery whiteness flowed 
down his breast and gave a look of sancitity to his appearance. Hu- 
mility, a deep conviction of the vanity of human grandeur, and aspir- 
ation for the happiness of abetter world were sentiments which he is 
said to have deeply felt and frequently expressed ; and nothing could 
prevail on him in the custom of the age and after the example of 
his father and grandfather to provide a monument for himself," 
etc. The historians generally represent this man as of a peaceful 
and good disposition. They also represent a brother or relation of 
his as acting king during his own extreme senility and the captivity 
of his son and successor, James. The homage which we read about, 
as having been rendered by James in 1423 was paid as one of the 
conditions to his release, although he had been captured in open 
violation of a truce. But that recorded as having been rendered in 
1292 by John Baliol and in 1326, by Edward Baliol, are undoubtedly 
fictions of the Scotch historical romancists ; and those "instru- 
ments" in particular which Hall, in his Chronicle, says were 
stolen by the Scotch from the English "Treasury." "instrument 



STEWARD. 1G9 

which nevertheless were after recovered again " were the fictitious 
foundations of any belief in those homages spo ken of in relation to 
the Baliols. If it were so easy in those day s for the Scotch to 
have "stolen" matter from the English Treasury why did they 
not, while they were about it, steal someth ing of considerable 
value and thereby, from the overflowing coffers of the South, 
have somewhat replenished their always impoverished little North- 
ern treasury? After James 1st, 1423, there is no more mention of 
such homage from Scotch to English kings. 

The full Gaelic name of the man who in 1346 
paid homage to Edward III, was, as said above, Eachan Mac 
Aenghus. This name Eoghan or Eachan is also entered as Caineach, 
which comes into English as Kenneth and after mac as the name 
MacKenzie. In fact as I see in Lord Haile's commentary to 
his history of Scottland, the two forms Eachan and Caineach are 
understood as variations of each other and stand to each other ex- 
actly as the Greek forms Hipparchus and Archippus respectively. 
This word Eachan or Caineach is again a form of the name Aengus, 
which is Enos and Enoch i.e., Aensheach, the sh being silent and 
dropped or, by transposition of its components, Sheachan (John). 
Here it is seen that the English form John, as in JohnBaliol, might 
be supposed substituted without violence in the English translation 
for the Gaelic name Aenghus. But the root of the word Eachan, 
the name of the son and successor of Aengus, is Aedh or Edh, 
which is the root of the name Edward : Consequently they might 
be conceived as without much violence turning the name Eachan 
Mac Aengus into the English form Edward Baliol. But while this 
is so, I nevertheless understand the names John and Edward Baliol 
as being fictitious as well as the names Robert and David Bruce: 
the form, David, however, might be understood, as mentioned above, 
of the surname of the man instead of the Christian name. Com- 
paring the Gaelic with the old Hebrew or Phoenician language we 
find the form Mac Duff is equal to Mac Aedhamh, meaning in Eng- 
lish a son of Adam or a son of man: and the form Mac Aenghuis 
is equal to Mac Enois, meaning in English a son of Enos or a son 
of man ; for Adam and Enos mean the same in the Hebrew that is, 
Man. In the Gaelic they mean also a house, a temple and, as to 
color, black, but really a dun or water color. The nation of North 
Britain was Gaelic and the names of its princes were Gaelic down 
to the connection with England ; but in the histories now as well as 



170 CRITIQUE OF SCOTTIC HISTORY. 

in the old English Chronicles these names appear in such English 
forms as were supposed to be equivalents for the Gaelic originals. 
Some of the Gaelic forms of those names are seen on page 163, the 
form Gilchrist being only a mystitication by the sacerdotal family 
historian for the real name. 

Speaking in relation to my position taken on page 164 as to the 
Alexander, duke of Albany, mentioned in the histories as a brother 
of James III, being identical with this James, I may say as before 
that a consideration of the whole subject as given in the various 
histories and chronicles makes this position quite clear, so clear 
indeed as that the critic who fails to discover it, in the examination 
of the authorities, may be said to fall as far short in true critical 
acumen and discriminative power as the mind of the common un- 
dergraduate, who is still fully occupied in his textbooks, falls short 
of that of the college president or of the old and experienced judge 
on the bench who has long ago bid farewell to the portals of his 
Alma Mater. This Alexander, duke of Albany (although Alexan- 
der was doubtless a form of name of the man to whom the repre- 
sentation ultimately had reference), is plainly a character evolved 
from the brain of the historical romancist to fill out or inflate, as 
we may call it, his partially ideal historic drama. According to 
the general representation Alexander must have been made at his 
birth, governor of Berwick, or of Dunbar, and warden of the 
Marches. As he develops it is found that he and his brother, 
James III, cannot live together in the same country, and so he 
departs for France, stopping on his way in England where he 
remains with Edward IV. James III, jealous at the entertainment 
of Albany in England, collects a large army intending therewith to 
invade that country, but having arrived at the borders he is stopped 
by a papal bull (only think of it !) and returns with his army into 
Scotland. At the instigation of Albany as well as for other rea- 
sons, Edward IV, invades Scotland with a large army, of which the 
duke of Glocester, Edward's brother, had chief command, and 
under him the duke of Albany held the position of a. subordinate 
commander. On the approach of the English army to Edinburgh 
(Hall's Chronicle, 332, etc.), James III, shuts himself up in " the 
Castle of the Maidens " in that city and in the settlement which 
follows between the duke of Glocester, who was in the city with 
his armv, and the Scotch authorities we hear nothing at all of King 
James, but of the duke of Albany (who subscribes himself Alexan- 



STEWARD. 171 

derRex, i.e. King) and the "three estates" on the side of the Scotch, 
and the duke of Glocester on the English side. Now, only think 
of the English commander having come so far and at so great an 
expense with such a large army, remaining long in the same city 
with King James without having had an interview with him ! " The 
king had shut himself up in the Castle of the Maidens." What 
childish stuff ! Afterwards, when all is over and Glocester with his 
army, has departed, Alhanie permits King James to go free; but 
soon finds again that the two brothers cannot live together in 
Scotland. He, therefore, departs for France, where he soon after 
jjets killed in a tilting match at the French court. He there leaves 
after him a son, John, who also dies in France. This last, of 
course, is identical with the John, Earl of Mar, son of James III, 
who, some of the historical romancists say, died childless, but who, 
it appears certain, had one son named Alan, through whom de- 
scended the family of Rothiemurcus. For, from John, son of 
Alister Ciar and brother to my ninth ancestor, Adam (which last is 
thought to have been that bishop of St. Andrews killed at Flod- 
den with his brother, James IV, in 1513) descended the Shaws 
of Rothiemurcus and the Farquarsons of Braemar, or the hilly 
country of Mar. Rothiemurchus in Strathspey and Braemar in the 
present Aberdeen, may be called the valley and mountainous parts 
of the same section of Scotland, in the days of the Jameses generally 
called Mar. " By his queen, Margaret, daughter to Christiern, 
King of Denmark, James (III,) left a family of three children, all 
of them sons ; James, his successor; a second son, also named James, 
created Marquis of Ormond, and who afterwards became Arch- 
bishop of St. Andrews, and John, Earl of Mar," etc. Tytler III, 
439-40, Grafton's Chronicle under Henry VIII, &c. : Adam (Gaelic 
Aedhamh) is an original form of tne name which comes into Eng- 
lish as James. The nearness to each other of the forms of name 
given to the two brothers in Gaelic has caused some translator to 
turn them both into English as James; but the second had better 
have been put into English as Adam. 






BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF EGYPT. 



CRITICAL REVIEW 



OF THE 



HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT, 



,/ EY 

ROBERT SHAW", M. A. 



AUTHOR OF 



CREATOR AND COSMOS; OP COSMOTHEOLOGIES AND INDICATIONS OF JUDGMENT; OF A 

CRITIQUE OF THE HISTORY OF THE SCOTTS OR GAELS OF THE BRITISH ISLES: 

OF THE CHALDAEAN AND HEBREW AND THE CHINESE AND 

HINDOO ORIGINES; OF THE PHOENICIAN 

COSMOGONIES, ETC. 



BE VISED. 



ST. LOUIS: 

BECKTOLD AND COMPANY. 

1889. 



INTRODUCTION. 



(CRITIQUE OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT.) 

I trust these few preliminary remarks, which I deem it expedient 
to prefix to this Treatise, may not be taken as in the nature of an 
apology for what it purports to introduce, as I see Introductions, 
so-called, very often are ; for I here confess that I have no apology 
to offer for my giving to the public, in addition to the very large 
amount of literature on the subject of Egypt already extant, my 
" Critical Review of the History of Ancient Egypt " herein set 
forth: But, p er contra, and for many reasons. And, first, in 
consideration of the very confused state of the authorities thereon 
as to the chronology and as to the order of succession of the dy- 
nasties and of the individual rulers of those dynasties of that inter- 
esting ancient empire, so-called, of Menes, the learned, more 
especially those interested and somewhat occupied in the subject of 
the Egyptian archaeology have long felt the need of such a treatise 
as this I here put forth. In the way in which I treat this eminently 
ethnological subject, (for this, in connection with my " Critical Re- 
view of the History of the Gaelic Race," will show pretty distinctly, 
and as a matter of fact, that the Shepherd race of ancient Egypt, 
or the race, so called, of Menes, did from time to time stock Europe 
and, to a large extent, Asia, also, with the historical, dominating 
and eminently civilized races) in the way in which, as I say, I treat 
this subject, that is, only with reference to the discovery of the 
truth and to its statement in the most succinct language possible, 
this treatise will, I believe, be found effectual as to the ac- 
complishment of its object and quite comprehensible to the or- 



ii INTRODUCTION. 

dinary mind in regard to its meaning throughout. In my humble 
judgment the literary field is altogether too much occupied with 
fiction ; in the times of the past the history proper was beclouded 
with fiction, the Historical Romance was overdone, and men went 
on improving on each other in that line until such perfect super- 
structures were raised upon the base of history proper that it be- 
came almost impossible for the honest historical critic in the after 
times to disengage the facts from the fiction, such a net work was 
wont to be made by the historical romancists. This " critique," 
as the title indicates, has for its main object to disengage the facts 
of the history from the fiction and to discover and set forth the true 
succession of the dynasties and of the individual rulers of those 
dynasties in the ancient Shepherd Empire of Menes in their chron- 
ological order, and all this with reference to the exodus or origin of 
the Jewish people : If this have been done in relation to the old em- 
pire named, which ended with the list of 38 kings, so-called of 
Eratosthenes, and also, in effect, with respect to giving the chron- 
ological beginnings of the subsequent dynasties down to the Chris- 
tian era, then this, our "critique," will be sufficiently up to my 
purpose in its production and should be regarded with favor and as a 
great desideratum by the multitudes of sensible, intelligent and 
learned people throughout the world who take such an interest in 
this subject as at once evinces their respectable qualities of mind. 
St. Louis, 1888. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



(Critique of the HUtory of Ancient Egypt.) 

PAGES. 

Review and Synopses of the Dynasties froir the 1st to the 
18th inclusive, as given by Syncellus from Africanus 
and Eusebius, in which connection will be found 
6ome Biblical, Israelitish genealogies 1-23 

Manetho, the Sebennyte and his works, theological and 

historical 23-27 

A General Review, analysis andcomparison of the dynas- 
ties in relation to the afforewate number of 3555 
years, said to have been given by Manetho as the 
limit of their duration from Menes to Nectanebo 
inclusive and the result 7—47 

As to the date and nature of the Exodus or the departure 

of the Shepherds ; a corollary 47-52 

The Egyptian Year 53-55 

An Explanation of the passage in Herodotus relative to 
the Sun rising twice in the west, on the basis of the 
Sothiac Cycle 55-57 

The Dates of the 38 kings of Eratosthenes or of the 

kings of the old Egyptian Empire of Menes. - 57-58 

The Apis Cycle 58-59 

The Phoenix Period 59-60 

Catalogue of the 38 kings of Eratosthenes, 

Translation from the G reek 60-64 

The List of kings of Erastosthenes in its relation to that 

of Manetho and the successive ruling dynasties, etc. 64-96 

List of the Turin Papyrus 96-106 

Felix and Wilkinson as to the houses of the Sesortesens 106-108 

(ili) 



IV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGES. 

The Names in the Papyrus List shown to correspond with 
those of the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties, so far 

as these are expressed in Manetho's list, etc 108-118 

The Tablet of Karnak 118-122 

The Tablet of Abydos 122-123 

Data as to a Hyksos Period 123-126 

As to the time of Barneses II 126-130 

As to the date of Menes and the probability shown of 
his having been identical with the Hebrew patriarch, 
Jacob 130-141 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT 

EGYPT. 



An extended critical Review of the History of ancient 
Egypt: the Dynasties of Manetho as compared with the 
List of Eratosthenes and with the Synopses of the 
History of that country given by Herodotus, Diodorus 
and others; in which there is a general, analysis and 
discussion of the data as to who those Shepherd Kings 
were, whom Josephus claimed as being ancestors of the 
Jews ; in which it results that the 18th dynasty, so 
called, begins the empire of Menes; that the 18th, 19th 
and 20th dynasties, so called, when fully expressed, 
without any name properly belonging to the lists being 
left out represent all the dynasties, so called, from the 
1st to the 17th inclusive, which are expressed on paper 
before them and are equivalent to the 38 rulers of the 
List of Eratosthenes. The attainment of this result 
with its illustrative tabulations, which will make it 
comprehensible with little study, removes much obscurity 
from this interesting subject and shows the beginning 
of History proper in Egypt to Synchronise respectably 
with such beginning in Chald^a, India and China. 

Review and Synopses of the dynasties from the 1st to the 18th inclusive, as given by 
Syncellus from Africanus andEusebius, in which connection will be found some Bibical 
Israelitish genealogies. 

Bunsen gave it as his opinion that Joseph went into Egypt in the 
days of Sesortesen, one of the first kings of the 12th dynasty; he 
finds that in the reign of tbis king a great famine prevailed in Egypt. 
" We are," says he, " indebted to Birch for deciphering the follow- 
ing tomb-inscription of the lieutenant of Amenemha (i.e. Sesorta- 
sen). The person entombed states that he was governor of a dis- 
trict in Upper Egypt under the above kingand is represented as saying 
as follows : ' When in the time of Sesortesen I., the great famine 
prevailed in the other districts of Egypt there was corn in mine." 
"Nobody," Bunsen continues, "would venture to build up a 
synchronism on such a notice as this ; but admitting that Joseph was 

(1) 



Z AS TO JOSEPH. 

the viceroy of one of the Sesortosidse, and that he owed his power 
and consideration to his foresight in providing against the seven 
years of scarcity, no one will contend that such a notice is not de- 
serving of very great attention aud it must turn the scale in favor of 
Sesortasis 1st." Egypt hi, 334. 

He means here the first king of the 12th dynasty, whose time he 
supposed to be about 2700-2800 B. C, but which I find to have 
been about 1300 B. C. What if he had put Joseph seven or ei^ht 
hundred years earlier than the date really was, would he have been 
more nearly correct? A discussion of the whole subject may en- 
able you to determine intelligently. But a consideration of the 
Mibject will show that if the tomb-inscription referred to means really 
what it is interpreted to say it could not demonstrably be under- 
stood as referring to Joseph. If such a governor had been interred 
there a person would suppose his mummy would have presented 
some race indications, which could not fail to have been noticed by the 
discoverer ; but of this nothing is said, which may or not ultimately 
go to prove that it was Joseph's tomb and inscription : for, of 
course, it is supposable that when Joseph was interred temporarily 
in Egypt there was an inscription put over his tomb, which remained 
there after his body was removed to Canaan ; and the supposable 
cause of the discoverer of the tomb not mentioning the mummy 
would be that the mummy was not there: for we read in Gen. L, 
26, that " when Joseph died he was enbalmed and put in a coffin 
in Egypt :" and in Exodus xiii, 21, it is said, in relation to the de- 
parture of the Israelites from Egypt; "And Moses took the bones 
of Joseph with him; for he (Joseph) had strictly sworn the chil- 
dren of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you and ye shall carry up 
my bones away hence with you." Moreover, in Joshua xxiv, 32, 
it is said of the Israelites after they had come into possession of the 
land of Canaan : "And the bones of Joseph, which the children of 
Israel brought up out of Egypt, they buried inSchechem, in apiece 
of ground which Jacob had bought of the sons of Humor, the father 
of Schechem, for an hundred pieces of silver; and it became the 
possession of the children of Judah." 

Now, to whomsoever the inscription may have referred, leaving 
out of the question altogether as to whether or not it was properly 
interpreted, it is certain we have no authority for saying that Joseph's 
remains were left in Egypt or that any one in this nineteenth cen- 
tury could have produced his mummy thence. 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORT OP ANCIENT EGYPT. 



But the identification of the Israelites with the Shepherd or Hyk 
sos races of Eygpt by Josephus sets us earnestly to discover who 01 
what races of people those were to which he refers as beingthe an- 
cestors of the Jews. In the histories of Egypt which have reached 
us the Shepherd races begin to be noticed more or less in the tabu- 
lation in the interval set down in the books between the 12th and 
18th dynasties. 

I will first give the tabulation of Julius Africanus, who was priest 
or bishop of Eimnaus — Kicopolis in Judaea, in the beginning of 
the 3rd century and founder of the Library of Csesarea, which was 
afterwards enlarged by Eusebius : — 

Africanus (Syncellus, pp. 54-61) according to whom 

reigned 

8 Thinite 

9 " 
9 Memphite 



1st Dynasty consisted of 
2nd " " " 



3rd 

4th 

5th 

6th 

7th 

8th 

9th 

10th 

11th 

12th 

13th 

14th 

15th 

16th 

17th 



Kings 263 years. 
" 302 " 

214 " 
" 284 " 
" 218 " 
" 203 " 



" " " 9 Elephantine ' 

" " "6 Memphites < 

" 70 " " — 70 days. 

" 27 " " 146 years. 

" " " 19 Herakleopolitan " 409 " 

(i «« «< 19 .i « 185 (i 

" " " 16 Diospolitan " 43 " 

«« « « 7 «« « ico << 

" » " 60 " " 453 " 

" " "76 Choites Kings 184 " 

" " " 6 Shepherd " 284 " 

" " " 32 " " 518 " 

" " 43 Other " 151 " 

and 34 Theban " 

18th " " " 16 Diospolite " 259 

So far this exhibit may suggest that " the utmost confidence " is 
not to be placed in the apparent face value of those data. 

What Africanus says specifically as to his 15th Dynasty is as fol- 
lows : — 

"Of Shepherds. 

They were Phoenician stranger kings, six in number, who also 
took Memphis. These same people also built a city in the Seth- 



4 THE EARLY DYNASTIES. 

roite Nome, whence sallying forth they were accustomed to keep 
the Egyptians in subjection. Of these the first 

Saites reigned 19 years 

from whom also the 
Saites Nome 



Bnon 

Pacinian 

Staan 

Archies 

Aphobis 



reigned 



44 
61 
50 
49 
61 



Sum of years 284 



The average reign for these six would be, as here, 47^ years, 
which for six in succession appears, to historical experience, non- 
sensical. 

Hitherto Africanus. Now we give the same according to Euse- 
bius in his Armenian version and as in Syncellus. I may remark 
here that it is only through Syncellus that we know Africanus or 
Manetho, or, so far as concerns Egyptian history, Eusebius. 



Dynasty. Eusebius. 



Syncellus. 



1st. 


8 Thiuite Kit 


2nd. 


9 " 


3rd. 


8 Memphite 


4th. 


17 " 


6th. 


31 Elephantine 


6th. 


.. Memphite 


7 th. 


5 " 


8th. 9 


(19) 


9th. 


4 Herakleopolitan 


10th. 


19 " 


11th. 


16 Diospolitan 



12th. 


7 " 


13th. 


60 " 


14th. 


76 Choite 


15th. 


Diospolitan 


16th. 


5 The ban 


17th. 


4 Shepherds 


18th. 


14 Diospolitan 



7 
60 

76 

6 

4 
14 



Kings 









Syncellus. 


Eusebius. 




Afr. 


Eus. 


228 


;258) 


years 


253 


or 252 years 


297 




ii 




i< u 


197 


(198) 


ii 




" 198 " 


448 




ii 


274 


II II 






i< 


248 


" 100 " 


203 




1 1 




II .... It 


7ft 




it 




11 75 days 


100 




ii 


142 


" .... years 


100 




ii 





ii .... *< 


185 




it 


.... 


ii .... ** 


43 




ii 


.... 


it . , ., *r 







Euseb. in 






Arm. Sync. 






years 


182 


(245) 


" 182 (245) " 182(245) 


463 




" 453 " 453 " 
years 


484 




" 184 (484) " 184 (484) 


250 




" 250 " 250 year* 


190 




" 190 " 190 " 


103 




" 103 " 103 " 


317 


(348) 


" 325 (323) " (348) " 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 5 

What is said specifically under the head of Eusebius as to the 
Shepherds is as follows: 

" 17th dynasty: of Shepherds: who were Phoenicians, brothers 
and stranger Kings and occupied Memphis. 

Saites, the first of these, reigned 19 years 

from whom also the Sethroite 
Nome has drawn its appellation. These 
same people founded a city in the Seth- 
roite Nome, whence having made ex- 
cursions they kept the Egyptians in 
subjection. 

Bnon, the second of these Kings reigned 40 years 
Archies, after him, " 30 " 

Aphophis, then " 14 " 



Sum 103 " 
In the age of these Joseph is thought to have reigned King in 
Egypt." Would not this mean that Eusebius understood that our 
patriarch, Joseph himself, may have been the first of those four 
Kings, since the name Seth, spelled also Seph, is the root or shorter 
form of Joseph? The placing of these four as the 17th dynasty 
(Africanus it is seen has his six Phoenician Shepherds as his 15th), 
suits the idea which the Septuagint version makes so clear of a 215 
years' sojourn for the Israelites in Egypt from the entrance of Jacob 
to the Exodus under Moses. Tuthmosis III, in whose reign the 
Hyksos are said to have left Egypt was of the third generation from 
the time of the beginning of the 18th dynasty. 

The following is the list of the six Shepherd kings in Josephus 
(contra, Apion, I. c. 14), who says he quotes from Maiietho's 
Greek version of the Egyptian History : — 
The first of these. 

Salatis reigned 13 years. 

Beon " 44 " 

Apachnas " 36 "7 mos. 

Apophis " 61 " 

Jonias " 50 "1 raon. 

Assis " 49 "2 mos. 



Sum, 253 " 10 " 
The average reign is here made 42 years and about 4 months, 
which experience has shown to be much too great an average length 



6 EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY. 

■for reigns of monarchs and much too great even for the average 
length of human life. Africanus' 284 years for his six Shepherd 
kings gives a greater average reign still than this of Josephus. 

Following I tabulate the 18th dynasty, giving the lengths of 
reign, as it appears in Africauus, so that you may be able to see 
something approaching to the ordinary average length of reign as 
set forth in the lists of the Egyptian kings. 

" Eighteenth Dynasty of 16 Diospolitan kings, of whom the first, 
was Amos, in his time Moses went out of Egypt as we teach," 
that is, according to Africanus : — 

1. 

2. Chebros reigned 13 years. 

3. Amenophthis " 21 " 

4. Amensis ( Amersis) " 22 " 



stone. 



5. Misaphris 


(4 


13 


6. Misphragmouthosis 


(< 


2fi 


7. Touthmosis 


(1 


9 


8. Amenophis 


ft 


31 


lght to be that Memnor 


i, ce 


lebral 


9. Orus 


<t 


37 


10. Acherres 


<t 


32 


11. Kathos 


it 


6 


12. Chebres 


(< 


12 


13. Achei'es 


(< 


12 


14. Armeses 


<( 


5 


15. Eameses 


<< 


1 


]6. Amenophath 


<( 


19 



Sum, 259 " 
The average reign here would be, as it stands, only about seven- 
teen years. The aggregate number of years given here for the 15 
is seen to be about the same as Josephus gives for the six Shep- 
herd kings and less by 25 than the aggregate Africanus gives for 
the same 6. The number of 25 years which Josephus says Amos 
(whom he, however, calls Tuthmosis) reigned after the departure 
of the Shepherds, if added to this aggregate sura we get in Africanus 
for fifteen reigns (lie not having expressed the length of reign of 
Amos), would make 284 years, the exact number he gives to the 
six Shepherd kings he specifies. And not only is this number as 
appearing of six shepherd kings before the eighteenth dynasty in- 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 7 

tended to imply that the said six kings did exist before this dynasty, 
but it will perhaps be noticed finally that not only all the kings 
called Shepherd, but all other before the said 18th dynasty back to 
Menes are but repetitions, as to name and time given, of what we 
have in the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties so called, when fully ex- 
pressed, which are exactly represented, though often under differ- 
ing forms of name, in the list of 38 names of Eratosthenes. 

Among the children of Israel after the Exodus, if we except the 
tribe of Judah, the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, the two 
sons of Joseph, appear to have been held in the greatest estimation. 
Joshua is represented as of the tribe of Joseph and tenth in descent 
from that patriarch, through his Son Ephraim, that is, if we are to 
understand that given in 1st Chronicles vii, 22-27, as the steps in 
his genealogy, which is as follows : — 

Joseph. 

Ephraim, son. 

Beriah, son. 

Resheph, son. 

Telah, son. 

Tahan, son. 

Laadan, son. 

Ammihud, son. 

Elishama, son. 

Nun, son. 

Oshea, son. 
In the Book of Joshua xxiv, 29 (which there is some reason to 
believe was called in early times the Book of the Wars of Jahveh), 
the leader of that name is said to have died at the age of 110 years, 
the age Joseph is said to have attained at his death, and I see the 
Biblical chronologists have there at the head of the margin 1427 
B. C. This indicates Ushef's idea to have been that Joshua was 
born in about 1537 B. C. This may seem a large number of gen- 
erations for 215 years. There are, however, to be counted only 
8^ generations for the time, and we are to remember that the tribe 
of Joseph was, if any, the governing tribe of the Israelites in 
Egypt; and that the governing or monarchical class propagate so 
much faster than the commonality that we look, from them in the 
direct line, for about four generations in a century. We have, 
therefore, here eight generations for two centuries and then half a 
generation for the fifteen years. The case presents no difficulty if 
there be not one found in the length of life to which men are said 



8 THE HIGH PRIESTS. 

in that age to have attained ; but in regard to that it is likely men 
in that age in good living circumstances married as early as they 
are accustomed to rnarrv now. 

In the geneaolgy of Moses to Jacob, these two included, we have 
only about half the number of names expressed for the like pe- 
riod : — 

Israel died 147 years old 

Levi " 137 " " 

Kohath " 133 " " 

Am ram " 137 " " 



Aaron 

,2 83 years old at the | Exodus 
Eleazer 



I 
Moses 

80 years old at the Exodus. 



Phineas (fights in the battle against 



2 Abishua Midian in which Baalam 
^ Bukki fell (Numb, xxxi, 6, &c.) 

° Uzzi 

o r • Zerahiah 

"S . Meraioth 

3 pq 

-S _ Amanah 

^ g Ahitub 

JS a Zadok, a priest under David ( 2. Sam. viii, 17). 

*1 x> Ahimaaz anoints Solomon (1 Kings, i. 39, 

3 * .. 

B « Comp. ii. 35). 

n Azariah, a Priuce under Solomon (1. Kings 



^ 1 iv. 2, and 1 Chrou. viii. 9). 

£ H Johanan 

C _a 

«h § Azariah, "a priest in the House of the Lord which 
Z -S Solomo'n built " ( 1. Chron. vi. 10). 

.2 Amariah under Uzziah (2 Chron. xxvi. 20). 

£ a Ahitub 

to Zadok 

ffl Shallum 
Hilkiah 






o 



Azariah 
Seriah 

Jehozadak carried into captivity by Nebuchad- 
nezzar (1 Chrou. vi. 15), 588 B.C. 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. V 

This list affords a generation to about every forty years. Be- 
tween Aaron, at the time of the Exodus and Azariah, a contempor- 
ary of Solomon, the latter included, there are twelve generations, 
which, reckoning 40 years to a generation, equal 480 years 
(12X40=480), from the Exodus to the founding of the Temple. 
Also, between Azariah, in the time of Solomon, and Jehozadak, in 
the time of Nebuchadnezzar, there are just ten generations, which, 
at 40 years to a generation, fills the time. 

Again, let us take the genealogy of a contemporary of David, 
from Israel, namely of Asaph, the singer, we shall have: — 

Israel, 

Levi, 

Gershom, 

Jahath, 

Ahimei, 

Zimmah, 

Ethan, 

Adaiah, 

Zerah, 

Ethni, 

Malchiah, 

Baaseiah, 

Michael, 

Shimea, 

Berachiah, 

Asaph, (1 Chron. vi. 39-44.) 
Here we have fifteen generations from David to Jacob, not in- 
cluding the latter, which at 40 years to a generation leaves 600 
years. Now, supposing Asaph to have died about the year 1020, 
B. C, this would leave Levi (granting there are no links belong- 
ing to the genealogy left out, and further that 40 years to a gener- 
ation is the correct reckoning), to have flourished at or before the 
year 1620 B. C, or at somewhat over 120 years only prior to the 
Exodus. There seems hardly any doubt that in their chronologi- 
cal reckoning of these lists the Jews counted 40 years to a genera- 
tion. The mode of reckoning of the old Greeks was by genera- 
tions, but they usually reckoned as the moderns do, three 
generations to a century, 33^ years to a generation. The men in 
this list must have been long-lived and married old if no links are 
wanting. 



10 LINK OF DAVID. 

Let us take the genealogy of King David himself, as given in 
Ruth (iv.) 22, etc., and in 1 Chron. ii:15, etc., and see how it 
stands : — 

Israel, 

Judah, 

Pharez, 

Hezrom, 

Aram, 

Amminadab, 

Nahshon, 

Solmon, 

Boaz, 

Obed, 

Jesse, 

David. 
From Judah, the brother of Levi and Joseph, in this list, to 
David, including these two, we have only eleven names standing 
for the same space of time as the fifteen names stood for in the list 
just preceding. These 11 generations, reckoning 40 years for each 
from the time of David's death, say in 1015 B. C, would take us 
back to 1455 B. C. , or to within one or two generations of the Exodus. 
This list, would therefore, on this reckoning, leave unaccounted 
for this one generation spoken of up to the Exodus plus the gen- 
erations to fill up the 215 years in Egypt from the time of the en- 
trance of Israel thereto. 

The five last names in this list present to my mind a peculiarly 
Phoenician (Edotnitic) physiognomy. David is the Gaelic Daeb- 
haedh, or briefly Dun", in English, Jesse is Isai (Seaeh). Obed 
appears a form of Edom, the b taking the place of m. Would not 
Obed-Edotn (2 Sam. vi. 10-12) be the same name repeated? 
And Boaz is simply another form equivalent to Edom or E>au, and 
would even staud for Israel. Edom or Seth stands for Israel and 
hence the words of the prophet (Isa. lxiii. 1). " Who is this that 
cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah," etc., is 
explainable literally ; for do not some good interpreters understand 
from the two genealogies given of him iu Matthew and Luke, that 
both on his mother's and his father's side the Savior was 
descended from Judah, the son of Israel? Ho was, thus, as to his 
human nature, at least, descended from the ancient line of Phoeni- 
cian and South-Scythian, or what are called Indo-Scythian Kings; 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORT OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 11 

but as to his divine nature he was, as we all believe, as evidently 
derived from God. Salmon, in the above genealogy of David, is a 
name in the old language which may have been a historical (not 
spoken) equivalent for David; it is the Gaelic Colum or Coluiuiu 
in the common name Malcolm. Colum or Columan means a dove 
or peace, and so is equivalent in the Gaelic to Daehhaedh (Daebh= 
dove) and Sethach ; and in the Phoenician it had another form 
which came into English as Absalom, meaning son of peace or 
father of peace, for in the old language ab had the meaning of son 
as well as father. Latin, Col umba (a dove) Al>co!uin = Absalom. 
I would not, however, consider it at all unlikely that several links 
were omitted in this genealogy of David, which appear necessary 
to fill up the entire space between him and Judah, the son of Israel 
and, on the other hand, in regard to the length of the sojourn, so 
called, of the Israelites in Egypt, I see no reason why the period 
of 215 years should not be sufficient for the longest genealogy we 
have met with for that sojourn, namely, that of Joshua, taken as we 
have explained it. 

This need not prevent us from understanding that there may 
have been other Shepherd races which dominated in Egypt, and 
this for long periods, who were of kindred race to the Israelites; 
but it would seem plain from the idea in the mind of Josephus 
and Eusebius on the subject, that those Shepherds whom they rep- 
resent as beginning to dominate over Egypt, first, under King 
Saites or Salites (the viceroy) and whose descendants were put out 
of that country by Tuthmosis III. were the people understood as 
the Israelites of the Exodus. They are represented by these two 
writers named as well as by Africanus as, per se, the Shepherd kings of 
Egypt and at the same time as Phoenician brothers at their begin- 
ning. To say with Wilkinson or any other that "Joseph was in 
Egypt in the age of these kings," I would consider to be uncalled 
for in the case, as they themselves set it forth; for by the repre- 
sentation they all give of the beginning of the Shepherd dynasty 
either Joseph himself was Saites or Salites, then first, or rathei 
second king, or the Shepherd dynasty is not worth consideration 
in connection with the Biblical representation of the sojourn in 
Egypt of the Israelites. 

But, on the other baud, as you must have noticed in the lists I 
have already given of the first 18 dynasties, there is a good deal of 
difference in what has been written by the different authors upon 



12 BUNSEN, SYNCELLUS, ETC. 

this subject of the Shepherd kings ; it is expedient that we keep this 
subject in view until we get all the light we can upon it before 
dropping it. 

" The Middle Empire," says Bunsen (Egypt 1. 133), " occupies 
the period from the 13th to the 17th dynasties inclusive and the 
measure of its duration is that of the Shepherd dominion. The 
Theban and Choite kings were contemporaneous with the Shepherds 
and with each other." This is Bunsen's hypothesis and the period 
of his Middle empire he supposed to have covered a little over nine 
centuries. 

Speaking of the lists and chronology of Manetho, he says: "We 
know that he assigned 3555 years to the whole empire, of which 13 
centuries in round numbers belonged to the Old, 9 to the Middle 
and 12 to the New." (Id. 134). Before we get through we will, 
doubtless, be better able to judge whether Manetho is responsible 
for those figures or not. 

It is noticeable that in all the copies, purporting to be from Ma- 
netho, unless that of Eusebius, the first Shepherd kings are repre- 
sented as six in number, generally as Phoenicians and brothers. 
Bunsen says, however, that the number six is nowhere mentioned 
in the original in connection with them ; but he must have forgotten 
himself in making this statement, for he never saw the original 
unless through Josephus, Africanus and Eusebius, and never saw 
the latter two, as to Egypt, unless through Syncellus. Eusebius, 
however, specifies only 4 names of Shepherd kings, the first of 
whom he makes Saites, that is Seth ; and I have suspected that, 
perhaps, the reason the number 6 came to be associated with their 
beginning was that one meaning of Seth or Sech in the old Gaelic 
language is six, Sheth in Chaldaic being sixth; and the meaning of 
the name of their first kini;- might have given rise to the number 
being associated with their name? 

In what is called the Laterculus of Egpytian kings by Sj'ncellus 
I find the following: — 

Years 

1. " Silitis, the 26th king of Egypt, reigned .... 19 
He was the first of the six of the 17th dy- 
nasty in Manetho. 

2. Baion, the 27th king of Egypt, reigned 44 

3. Apachnas, the 28th king of Egypt, reigned .... 36 

4. Aphophis, the 29th «««««« '« .... 61 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 13 

Some say that this man was the first that 
was called Pharaoh, and that in the fourth 
year of his reign Joseph came into Egypt, a 
slave : that he, in the 17th year of his reign, 
constituted Joseph lord of Egypt and of all 
his dominions, because he had explained to 
him the purport of his dream, and because, 
through experience, he came to have knowl- 
edge of its divine signification. But, in- 
deed, the Holy Scriptures call the king of 
Egypt, who was contemporary with Abra- 
ham, Pharaoh." 

Years. 

5. Sethos, 30th king, reigned 50 

6. Kertos, 31st " " 89 

7. Aseth, 32d " " 20 

This man adopted the system of intercallary months for the 
years, and, in his time, as they say, he used the year of 3(35 clays ; 
the Egyptians hitherto having measured the year by 360 days. In 
his reign the bull Apis was deified." There is no intimation here 
of any instability about the government, and still less that this king 
Aseth was of a foreign dynasty to Egypt; on the contrary things 
appear in a quiet and normal national condition. 

The next he gives is "Aniosis also called Tethmosis," the first 
of the 18th dynasty in all the other lists, whom he marks 33rd in 
his list and then goes on with the names of the 18th dynasty as in 
Africanus and the other lists generally. He, therefore, has 7 kings 
of the Shepherd dynasty instead of 6, as in Africanus and Jose- 
phus, or 4 as in Eusebius; and for these 7 he gives an aggregate 
of 259 years, the number to a unit which Africanus gives to his 
18th dynasty, reckoning 15 kings. A person would think, then, 
there must be something arbitrary or inventive at the foundation 
of this Shepherd dynasty story and might ask, did this Shepherd 
dynasty or those Shepherd dynasties which they write about have 
an existence de facto or did they exist only on paper, every one 
who has written on the subject having it in a different way than the 
others concerning them? Wait a while, my inquirer. The subject 
needs more investigation, more discussion, and will, doubtless, be- 
come more lucid as to the result. I will, however, give you Syn- 
cellus farther through the sixteen names, which most of the old 



14 SYNCELLUS. 

lists yet set down as of the 18th dynasty, since on this part of the 
subject much light is needed. 

Years. 

1. Amasis, also called Tethmosis, 33d King 26 

2. Chebron, 34th King 13 

3. Amenophis, 35th King 15 

4. Amenes, 36th King 11 

5. Misphragmouthosis 37th King 16 

6. Misphres 38th " 23 

7. Tuthraosis 39th " 39 

8. Amenophis 40th " 34 

This same Amenophis is thought to have been that Mem- 
non, whose voice was heard in stone : which stone, 
in the aftertimes Cambyses, the Persian, cut down, sup- 
posing there was sorcery in it, as Polvainos, the Athe- 
nian has recorded in his history. 

Concerning the Ethiopians-; whence they were and where 
they lived. 

Ethiopians, having come from the river Indus, settled in 
Egypt. 

9. Oros 41st King 48 

10. Achencheres 42d " 25 

11. Athoris 43d " 29 

12. Chencheres 44th " 26 

13. Acherres 45th " 38 

14. Armaios, also called Danaus 46th " 9 

15. Barneses . . 47th " 68 

16. Amenophis 48th " 8 

17. Thuoris 49th " 17 

The ninth in succession from this last he makes to be another 
" Thuoris," and " the Polybus of Homer in whose time Troy was 
taken," and "by whom Menelaus, while wandering about with 
Helen after the capture of Troy, was entertained." The 10th in 
succession from this last, or the 68th king of his list, is Petoubastes, 
"during whose reign," he says, "the first Olympiad was cele- 
brated," 776 B. C. 

So far I deemed it expedient to give you this independent list of 
Geo. Syncellus, a Byzantine monk, said to have been vice-bishop 
of Constantinople, and to have flourished about 800 A. D. He ed- 
ited the epitomes of Manetho'a Egyptian history made by Afri- 
canus and Eusebius ; and gave us a list himself in this which lie 
calls his Laterculus. He agrees with Eusebius in making his 
Shepherds to begin with the 17th dynasty, while Africanus makes 
them to begin with the 15th. Moreover, instead of beginning 
with 6 kings as Africanus, he so places 7 that nobody can doubt 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 15 

that he means to have them understood as being meant for seven 
Shepherd kings. A person would be apt to think he had con- 
founded his Aseth, the last of the seven, with Amosis, the first of 
the 18th dynasty, but somebody has understood him as making 
Amosis to have been son of Aseth. 

But now, if, as Bunsen says, the Middle Period of Egyptian His- 
tory, occupying the time from the 13th to the 18th dynasty be dis- 
tinctively " the Shepherd Period," the " Theban and Choite kings 
being contemporaneous with the Shepherds and with each other," 
and lasting about 922 years; and if (seeing that Bunsen appeal's to 
have had a better opinion of the integrity or ability of Africanus 
than of either Eusebius or Syucellus), we are to give the prefer- 
ence to the statements of Africanus, should we not first rather 
exercise our judgment on the statements given by both, in so far as 
we are able to do so, and then incline to the side which we judge 
to have the greatest amount of probability in its favor, without 
being governed by prejudice or partiality? It seems to me that 
this is the preferable course for us to pursue. Let us, then, have 
the data given by Africanus for this period, which are as fol- 
lows : — 

Tears, 

14th Dynasty 76 Choite Kings 184 

15th " 6 Shepherd " 284 

16th " 32 " "518 

17th " 43 Theban and 43 Shepherd Kings, contemporaneous 151 

Total - 1137 

Here, supposing we are to make the addition of the figures as 
they stand, we should have a period of 1137 years represented by 
157 successive kings, which would leave the average length of 
reign for the whole period to have been 7^- years. If, however, 
we take the average lengths of the reign for the dynasties sepa- 
rately in this period we shall have for the 14th dynasty a little over 
2£ years; for the 15th, 47^ years; for the 16th about 16 years; 
and for the 17th, 3£years. 

Notwithstanding Buusen's fairly good opinion of Africanus he 
did not agree with his data for this period, and no wonder, for it 
is seen here the average lengths of reign for the different dynasties 
and for the individual kings of those dynasties for this period are 
so disproportionate as to be altogether unreasonable. The investi- 
gator will easily conclude that the actual state of the facts could 



16 EUSEBIDS, ETC. 

hardly have been as they would seem to have been represented by 
Africanus for that period in Egypt. 

Let us now take the statements of Eusebius for that period and 
nation, which are as follows : — 

Tears. 

14th Dynasty 76 Choite Kings 484 

16th " — Theban " 250 

16th " 5 '< "190 

17th " 4 Shepherd " 103 

Total 1027 

In the aggregate number of years here given by Eusebius for 
this period there are 110 years less than Africanus would appear 
to give and 100 years more than what Bunsen allows for it. As 
the number of kings for the fifteenth dynasty is not stated in Euse- 
bius nor in Synccllus on Eusebius, it is impossible for us to give 
the average length of reign for the whole period. But we can give 
it for the separate dynasties so far as the other three dynasties for 
the period are concerned. For the 14th dynasty, as according to 
Eusebius, the length of the average reign would be a little less 
than 6|- years; for the 16th dynasty 38 years; and for the 17th 
25| years. The absence of the number of kings for the 15th 
dynasty in Eusebius, where Africanus has his six Shepherds, might 
cause some to suspect that this is truly a " Shepherd period " and 
that Eusebius does not represent things as he found them here, but 
as he made them to appear himself. It may, however, turn out 
that one of them was as true as the other in so far at least as that 
the kings they were writing about were of or sprung from the shep- 
herd stock. However, the mind will be likely to incline here to 
Africanus and by consideration and comparison of the data in the 
exhibits will conclude it more probable that the " Phoenician Shep- 
herds " of Africanus succeeded directly to their predecessors in the 
government and th.it the 15th and 16th dynasties could have been 
Diospolitan or Theban (as Eusebius has them to be) only in the 
sense of their being kings of all Egypt (this even by conquest) and 
being in occupation of Thebes. 

Bunsen, however, has the Shepherds to be the 15th and 16th 
dynasties. The 17th he makes to be Theban, doubtless, under- 
standing with Africanus, a divided government for the period 
between contemporary Theban and Shepherd dynasties, as he calls 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 17 

all this period, as mentioned before " the Hyksos period," and sup- 
poses its duration to have been about 922 years. 

The exhibit shows Africanus to agree better with Josephus than 
does Eusebius. In quoting Manetho, in regard to the Hyksos, Jose- 
phus represents him to say : " Those people whom we have before 
named kings and called Shepherds also, and their descendants, kept 
possession of Egypt for 511 years." " That," after these things, 
" the kings of Thebais and of the other parts of Egypt made an 
insurrection against the Shepherds and that thereupon a terrible 
and protracted war took place between them." Would this period 
of mutual warfare not refer to the period of 151 years given by 
Africanus to his 17th dynasty, of divided empire between his Shep- 
herds and Thebans? If there were a divided empire for 151 years 
the opposing houses would most likely have contended with each 
other betimes for the dynasty of the entire country and so the 
affray would have gone on- "He" (Manetho) "says further, 
that under a king whose name was Misphragmuthosis, the 
Shepherds were by him subdued, and, indeed, driven out of 
the other parts of Egypt, and were shut up in a place that 
contained 10,000 acres; this place was named Avaris: that the 
Shepherds built a wall round all this place, which was a large 
and strong wall, and this in order to keep all their possessions 
and their prey within a place of strength; but that Tuthmosis, the 
son of Misphragmuthosis made an attempt to take them by force 
and by siege with 480,000 men to lie round about them ; but that 
upon his despair of taking the place by that siege they came to a 
composition with them that they should leave Egypt and go with- 
out any harm being done them, whithersoever they would ; and 
that after this agreement was made they went away with their whole 
families and effects, not fewer in number than 240,000, and took 
their journey from Egypt through the wilderness for Syria ; but 
that as they were in fear of the Assyrians, who had then the 
dominion over Asia, they built a city in the country which is now 
called Judaea and that large enough to contain this great number 
of men and called it Jerusalem." Josephus says again: "Now 
Manetho in another book of his says that ' this nation thus called 
Shepherds were also called captives in their sacred books.' And 
this account of his is the truth, for herding of sheep was the occupa- 
tion of our ancestors in the most ancient times and as they led such 
a wandering life in herding sheep they were called shepherds. 

2— c 



18 TUTHMOSIS AND MOSES. 

Nor was it without reason that they were called captives by the 
Egyptians, for Joseph, one of our ancestors, told the king of Egypt 
that he was a captive and afterwards sent for his brethren to come 
into Egypt by the king's permission; but as for those matters I 
shall make a more exact inquiry about them elsewhere; " which 
promised inquiry is not now extant, if it was ever made. 

Now whoever those so called Shepherds were or from whatsoever 
human stock derived, it is seen in the above quotation that Jose- 
phus, a Jewish priest, recognized in them the ancestors of the Jews 
We learn from this, then, that the ancestors of the Jews were de- 
rived from Egypt, the land of Chem or Shem, to Judaea, with the 
reasonable supposition lying beyond that the ancestors of those an- 
cestors were derived in some preceding age to Egypt from the same 
northeastern regions of Syria and the adjacent parts. 

It is seen also in this same quotation from Josephus that those 
so called shepherds, ancestors of the Jews, left Egypt to the num- 
ber of about 240,000 in the time of King Tuthmosis ; the son of 
Misphragmuthosis. This Tuthmosis I find to be Rameses II, or his 
son, who was separated in time some 530 years at least from the 
Tuthmosis referred to by Josephus; and this whether or not any 
Exodus of Shepherds took place in those reigns. But, now, if this 
240,000 men were armed, and accompanied by women and children, 
they would have certainly presented a terrible aspect as they marched 
by Idumaea and up through southern Judaea under the renowned 
conqueror Tuthmosis: but, in the state of the case, such a supposition 
is inadmissible; for Moses, with perhaps four times the number of 
Israelites, old and young, male and female, must have been march- 
ing and counter-marching contemporarily to Sinai, through the 
wilderness, skirting the borders of Edom, Midian and Moab, to 
Mount Horeb and Mount Hor and Mount Pisgah during forty years, 
while young Joshua was being disciplined and exercised for tha 
command in the war which would give them the possession of Pal- 
estine and a continued victory over the Canaanitish race of giants. 

This quotation from Josephus, therefore, gives us two items, 
first, the derivation of the Jewish nation and, secondly, the name 
of the king in whose reign, according to Josephus' opinion, the 
Exodus from Egypt took place. In regard to the data which 
Manetho may have left relating to the Shepherds, as well as to the 
other parts of the Eyptian history, since we have now no access to 
that author's works, excepting through the intermediary of his 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 19 

epitomists, his works othwise having long ago disappeared, it 
would seem the most natural if not the most correct course to 
keep nearest to the records of those of his epitomists who were 
nearest in time to him. Josephus, therefore, comes first, Africanus 
second. 

If, then, there be anything in what Josephus says or if he 
has correctly quoted Manetho, we would naturally understand 
Manetho as informing us that the Shepherd race dominated 
Egypt for 511 years. The words are: "These people, whom 
we have before named kings and called Shepherds also, and their 
descendants, kept possession of Egypt for 511 years." This in- 
cludes, of course, the aggregate of the reigns of the six kings first 
mentioned, which as put down in the different authorities would 
give the six an average reign of from forty-two to forty-seven years, 
a result not consistent with historical experience. The sum given 
by Africanus is 518 years, which is evidently a slight variation of 
the same number, for the same period for which he has thirty-two 
Shepherd kings. Then the latter gives for 151 years forty-three 
Shepherd kings and an equal number of Thebans contemporary; 
data which Josephus does not give, but might be thought to imply 
in the time of war which he represents to exist in this interval, in 
these words: "The kings of Thebes and of the other parts of 
Egypt made insurrection against the Shepherds and a terrible and 
protracted war had place between tbem." This might be most 
naturally understood in the way represented in Africanus, that for 
151 years two governments were established in Egypt, betimes con- 
tending with each other for the monarchy, or sole sovereignty, the 
one having its administrative offices at Thebes, the other, perhaps, 
at Memphis, or Herakleopolis, i.e., Sethrum, doubtless, the city 
called Sais, in the Sethroite Nome. 

Manetho, through Josephus, further says : " That under a king 
whose name was Misphragmuthosis the Shepherds were subdued 
and were driven out of all other parts of Egypt, but were shut up 
in a place that contained 10,000 acres ; this place was called 
Avaris." This would indicate that the capital city of the Shep- 
herds had been Memphis, until the time of the father ofTuthmosis 
III, so that they would have had Avaris or Sethrum, as their cap- 
ital city, for only a part of one reign. 

Having, therefore, the time given definitely in Africanus for that 
double dynasty, the 17th, and knowing definitely by the lists that 



20 SHEPHERDS. 

Tuthinosis, the son of Misphraginuthosis, is the 7th ruler of the 
immediately succeeding 18th dynasty, what we have to do id find- 
ing from the data given the length of time this Shepherd race was 
in Egypt, is to add the years of the 18th dynasty, given to the 
reigns, up to the year in which he succeeded in having the Shep- 
herds go up and build Jerusalem, and add the amount to the 
aggregate already obtained, namely, 518 + 151 + 126 = 795 = 
600 + 195 years. This calculation would have the effect (granting 
the claim of Josephus to the Shepherds being his ancestors, and his 
own reckoning of the reigns of the 18th dynasty down to Tuthm - 
sis III, to be correct), of adding another patriarchal cycle to 
the three weeks of cycles we find elsewhere, for the interval 
from Adam to Christ. I take the 18th dynasty here, as accord- 
ing to Josephus, for Africanus does not appear to have stated 
the length of reign of its first king, while Josephus has put down 
for him 25 years and 4 months : — 

Yrs. Mos. 

1. Tuthmosis 1, according to Josephus 25 8 

2. Cheuron, " " " 13 

3. Amenophis, " " " 20 7 

4. Amesis (Sister), " " " 21 9 

6. Mephres, " " " 12 9 

6. Misphragmuthosis, " " 25 10 

7. Tuthmosis, " " 9 8 

Total, 129 2 

Of this sum I take 126 years, leaving the departure of the Shep- 
herds to have taken place in the 7th year of the reign of Tuthmo- 
sis, called the Third. A person might think there was one name 
too many in this list, and that the 13 years given to Chebron should 
be added to the 25 years and 8 months given to Tuthmosis I, or 
that the sum given to said Tuthmosis should be added to Chebron's. 
This of itself, would make no difference in the numerical result and 
it may be as well as it is, for Chebron is only a substitutional form 
for the real one. 

If some might argue that the above item of 195 years should be 
215, understanding with Josephus, the Shepherd Kings to have 
been of the house of Jacob, then I may say that the reckoning of 
795 years in the one case or 195 in the other is from the death of 
Joseph ; but if the 20 years of the life of Joseph after his father 
came into Egypt should be required, which, however, is already 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 21 

contained in the aggregate of the numbers given to the patriarchs 
from Adam to Joseph inclusive in my reckoning, under that head, 
then that 20 years can still be drawn from the reign of Tuthnio- 
sis III., whose reign in Syncellus' Laterculus is put down at 39 
years, instead of 9 as in Josephus. Absolutely, according to this 
reckoning, the Israelites would have been in Egypt 815 years 
after the entrance of Jacob into that country; there is, therefore, 
no need of reckoning that 20 years in twice as my proceeding 
here, in relation to that elsewhere, will be easily apprehensible. 

As then we have it established, according to one set of author- 
ities, that the time intervening between the entrance of the Shep- 
herds into Egypt under their first Prince Saites, and their much 
heard of exodus therefrom in the time of Tethmosis III., was 815 
years, it is natural for us to inquire whether there is a good reason 
to believe these Shepherds to have been the descendants of Jacob, 
who went down into Egypt in the days of Joseph. The fact that 
their first prince in Egj'pt was called Saites, Seth (Salil is or the 
viceroy) might indicate him to have been identical with him whom 
the Scriptures call Joseph; for Seph is another form for Seth, as 
Greek Hippos, root Hip, is equivalent to Gaelic Each, root Eich, a 
horse, the same root, thech mutating with ph. Seth, Seph, appears as 
phis in Memphis, Remphis, for Menes (Men-Seth) Ramses (Raam- 
Seth), etc. The star Sirius, the dog-star, is called also by the 
Egyptians, Soth, or Seth or Seph. The prefix Jo would in this 
compound mean son. It might also be considered as a repetition 
of the root, for among the Egyptians it was one of the names of 
Hercules or the Sun ; but Joseph would mean literally Pharaoh, 
Phra-ao=Ao-Seph or Joseph. So much for the name, whether or 
not there be anything in this. Salatis is said to mean viceroy or 
one who acts in, another's place; would Josephus have given the 
patriarch Joseph this appellation as intending to imply by it his 
office of viceroy for Pharaoh? For me to enter into an explanation 
of the names of the other Shepherd Kings that are given is unnec- 
esssary, since they are much varied in their forms as they appear 
in the different authorities. 

If, however, on the other hand, there are those who think they 
have good ground for assuming the sojourn of the children of 
Israel in Egypt to be identical with that of thePhcenecian Shepherd 
dynastyand to have lasted only 215 years, they have fortheir chron- 
ological data to depend upon Eusebius ; but even so they cannot 



22 EUSEBIUS, SYNCELLUS. 

go altogether with him, as he made the exodus to take place in the 
third reigu, or about 70 years after it did take place, as according 
to what we have seen in Josephus. 

But, taking Eusebius' computation for the reigns of his four 
Shepherds of the 17th dynasty, which is 103 years, and adding 
thereto from the list of Eusebius down to, say, the fifth year of 
Tuthmosis III., we shall have 103+102=205 years, from which 
we can safely, in consideration of the fluctuation of the numerical 
quantities in those authorities, take 10 and leave 195 years for the 
sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt after the death of Joseph. 

If, instead of subtracting 10 from the 205 years, down to the 
fifth year of Tethmosis III., we should add 10 to that number, 
which we can do as in the other case, whether or not with the same 
justness, then we have 215 years for the sojourn of the Israelites in 
Egypt after the entrance to Egypt of Jacob. To this last change , 
however, I, with the calculation I have already made out, taking 
in the whole life of Joseph to his death, need not be a party. 

Now, the difference in the time the Shepherds are represented as 
having sojourned in Egypt by those authorities arises from the 
places these Shepherd dynasts occupy in their lists and the number 
of years placed to the credit of their domiuancy or sojourn. Bun- 
sen having his own synchronistic system fully in view heartily 
concurs inSyncellus' accusation of Eusebius for arbitrarily altering 
the list of Manetho, as given in Africanus. " That these foreign 
kings," says Bunsen, formed the 17th dynasty is a fiction of Euse- 
bius, who is on that account fairly charged by Syucellus with falsi- 
fication of the lists. As regards names and years of reigns they are 
treated with the same procrustean license." (Egypt 1,223). 

It may be that both Syncellus and Bunsen were too severe in 
their accusations of the bishop of Cesarea. They may not have 
sufficiently reflected that this mighty theologian and diplomatist of 
the days and empire of the great Constantine must have had very 
much work to do in the theological field, aside from examining into 
the chronology of the history of the ancient empires ; and, that, in 
his perplexing and laborious circumstances, he may have judged it 
to be his bounden duty, in the then very varied state of polytheism, 
to have all chronologies to square, with the Biblical as derived from 
the Rabbis, and, which he, doubtless, judged had been very care- 
fully computed and prepared by them during a long series of ages. 
The requirements of our age are very perceptibly different from 
those of the age of Eusebius. 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 23 



MANETHO, THE SEBENNYTE AND HIS WORKS. 

Manetbo, the Egyptian historian, who was known to the ancients 
as a priest of Sebemvytus, is supposed to have lived in the reign and 
estimation of Ptolemy Soter and his successor Ptolemy Philadel- 
phus. It is remarked that this man, whom all the ancient authori- 
ties mentioned with deference, this historian endowed, if Aelian 
speak truly (H. A. x. 16) with consummate wisdom is become 
almost a mythological personage, with whom men have ceased to 
connect any clear and definite idea of personality. With the excep- 
tion of a few fragments preserved by epitomists, his works have 
disappeared in time while his fame has been somewhat obscured by 
the indifference or fraud of modern commentators. 

This man, whose name in the old Egyptian, it is said, would be 
pronounced Thothma, owes his reputation principally to having 
been the first who distinguished himself as a writer upon religion 
and philosophy as well as upon chronology and history, using the 
Greek language, as the medium for the elucidation of his native sub- 
jects, especially the Sacred Books. 

Before the age of the Ptolemies no native Egyptian work was 
known to the Greeks, either upon their religion or history. To 
supply the deficiency in each of these branches, Manet ho under- 
took and so well succeeded that he thereby formed an epoch in the 
research, not only of the Greeks but of the Egyptians themselves. 

" Manetho, the Egyptian," saysEusebius, »' not only reduced the 
Egyptian history into a Greek form, but also their entire system of 
theology, in his treatise entitled the Sacred Book, as well asin other 
works." Theodoret, in the second quarter of t lie fifth century, de- 
scribes him as the author of a mythological work or works concerning 
Isis and Osiris, Apis and Scrapis and the other Egyptian deities. 
Suidas, also, who had access to genuine sources, ascribes to him 
physologieal and astronomical works, and quotes Manetho's work 
on the preparation of the sacred incense, the genuine character 
of which has never admitted of any doubt. 

There were, however, either in his own age or very close after 
him, some who usurped his name, notably the author of the 
" Apostelmata " and of the book on the " Dog Star." 

In the Preface of his work Diogenes Laertius gives a brief de- 
scription of the Egyptian doctrine concerning the Gods, and justice, 



24 HANETHO'S THEOLOGY. 

moral precepts auu civil institutions, according to Manetho, the 
Sebennyte, anc 1 the younger Hecataeus of Abdera, the friend of 
Ptolemy Philadelphia. As he was for a good part of his life con- 
temporary with Manetho and frequented the same court he had 
doubtless read carefully that author's works and in what he quoted 
would cite correctly. The title of the work, which, it is thought, 
Diogenes only knew through Hecataeus, was a " Compendium of 
Natural Philosophy." 

The description Diogenes gives of it is as follows : " The begin- 
ning (the first principle of things) is substance (SAiy) ; from it the 
four elements afterwards separated themselves and animals were 
formed. The deities are the Sun and Moon ; the former is called 
Osiris, the latter, Isis. Their emblems are the Beetle, the Dragon 
(the Basilisk supposed) the Hawk and others. Statues and holy 
places are prepared for them, but the true form of God is unknown. 
The world had a beginning and is perishable ; it is in the shape of 
a ball. The stars are fire and earthly things are under their in- 
fluence. The moon is eclipsed when it crosses the shadow of the 
earth. The soul endures and passes into other bodies. The rain is 
caused by a change in the atmosphere. Hecataeus and Aristagoras 
mention other physiological doctrines. They had laws also for 
justice which they ascribed to Hermes (Thoth). They paid divine 
honors to useful animals. They claim the invention of Geometry, 
Astrology and Arithmetic." (Diog. Lert. Proem. ) Although it 
may be said that this meagre exhibit of their system is but a homely 
outline, still it will be noticed that it is free from those fantastic 
dreams which so distinguish some other s} r stems and are eminently 
characteristic of the productions of the so-called Spurious Manetho. 

According to his usual practice, without reference to any particular 
work, does Plutarch quote Manetho, the Sebennyte. This he does 
in regard to the derivation of the Egyptian name Zeus, Amun, etc. 
Manetho, he tells us, interprets this last name as signifying the 
Hidden God. Iamblichus gives the same interpretation. (De 
Mysteriis VIII. 3, Plut. de Is. ct Os. c. 9. p. 354). 

Manetho is quoted by Aelian in explanation of the reason why 
swine's flesh was forbidden to the Egyptian priests. The reason 
he states to be that whoever tastes sow's milk is attacked with 
scurvy and leprosy. This circumstance is also quoted by Plutarch 
as a reason why the Egyptians considered the hog an unclean animal. 

With remarkable sprightlmess and fullness of detail, reflecting 



CRITICAL REVIEW OP THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 25 

great interest on the subject, does the latter explain how the Kiphi, 
the sacred incense of the Egyptians, was prepared and mixed during 
the reading of the passages of the Sacred Books, which bore upon 
it. Suidas, as before mentioned, was acquainted with a special 
work of Manetho upon the Kiphi. On two points of the greatest 
importance in the religious history of Egypt Plutarch quotes the 
authority of Manetho. One of these relates to the most prominent 
name of Typhon, namely, Seth, for he remarks that Bcbon was 
generally held to belong not properly to Typhon, but to one of his 
attendants. From Manetho he also learned that as the magnet is 
called the bones of Horus so iron is called by the Egyptians "the 
bones of Typhon." 

That the ancient Egyptian religion practiced human sacrifices has 
been, I believe, well ascertained, and its abolition in the time of the 
old empire makes a memorable epoch in the religious history of 
Egypt. Plutarch informs us how Manetho relates that in Eilethyia 
(the city of the mother of Isis) the sacrifice of the so-called Ty- 
phoneaus was performed during the dog-days, after which the ashes 
of the victims were scattered to the wind. From Manetho's work 
on Archajology and Devotion he doubtless drew this account. This 
same work is quoted by Porphyry to the following effect : " Amos 
abolished the practice of human sacrifices in Heliopolis. They were 
formerly performed to Hera (the mother of Isis). The victims 
were examined and a seal was affixed to them, just as the calves, 
4 without blemish ' are now examined and sealed. Three were 
sacrificed daily. Amos ordered the same number of wax figures to 
be offered in their stead."* Sensible man ! In one of his works, 
that on " Ancient Theolog\%" Manetho described this custom, which 
was well known to the ecclesiastical writers, especially Eusebius, 
and Theodoret. In a critical estimate of the facts transmitted by 
Porphyry, relative to Egyptian affairs, it is important for us to 
know that he knew and quoted the text of Manetho. It cannot, 
therefore, be regarded as accidental that everything which has been 
drawn from the theological works of Manetho, by classical and 
ecclesiastical writers up to the fourth century, indicates a man of 
great sobriety and remarkable learning, more especially in the an- 
tiquities of his nation. 

Men are now generally of the opinion that it would be unjust to 
attribute to him any such dreamy and necromantic books, as some 

* Porphyr. de Abst. p. 199, R. 



26 MANETHO'S HISTORY. 

that have been put out under his name : nor do they suspect that 
this man, whom the monuments have so far proved to a good de- 
gree correct, would by altering or misplacing the names of kings or 
dynasties have left himself open to the charge of an empiric or a 
deceiver. They no longer consider that they should hold him re- 
sponsible for the mistakes of cop} r ists or epitomizers or for the 
forgeries of systematizing chronologers, who have had to do with 
his work. 

Of Manetho's historical work we have a better knowledge than 
of his other works. It was entitled " Three Books of Egyptian 
History." It was written in good Greek and taken, according to 
his own statement, from the Egyptian records. Josephus admits 
that he did not pay much attention to popular legends, but where 
he mentioned them did not conceal the sources of his information. 
From the same testimony we know that he refuted many statements 
of Herodotus concerning Egyptian affairs. 

With the assistance of the Turin Papyrus, which we shall speak 
of hereafter, it is thought a comparatively easy matter to render 
the plan of his work intelligible. The first volume is said to have 
contained the series of ante-historical dynasties, that is, those prior 
to the thirty historic dynasties : it began with the dynasties of the 
Gods and ended with those of mortal kings. 

Then follow in the same volume the first eleven historic dynas- 
ties, so-called. 

The second volume is said to have began with the 12th and ended 
with the 19th dynasty; and the last eleven dynasties are said to 
have been comprised in the third volume. 

That this was the plan of Manetho's work we have only the. 
word of his epitomists and so have to take that word at what we 
may consider it worth. If, however, the arrangement were such 
as is here said, then his first volume contained the mythical history 
of Egypt with such part of the history of the old empire as em- 
braced at least the first 26 names of the list of Eratosthenes 
(which I will give farther on) brought forward (or backward, if 
you will so have it) and rendered somewhat mythical by way ot 
anticipation ; for the 38 names of the list of Eratosthenes consti- 
tute the Old Empire of Menes to the end of the twelfth dynasty so 
called ; or, what may be regarded as the same, they constitute the 
18th, 19th and 20th dynasties ; that is to say, these three last men- 
tioned dynasties, so called, when succiuctly and fully expressed, 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 27 

with no name appearing which belongs n ot properly to the list and 
none omitted which properly belongs there, represent what is prop- 
erly understood as the Old Empire of Menes. If such arrange- 
ment as that given above were the work of Manetho and he put in 
only to the end of his 11th dynasty, so called, of mortal kings in 
his first volume ; then we have to s ay concerning it that snch ar- 
rangement seems inconsistent with the real state of the case, even 
in the production of a work of art; for why shon Id he have brought 
eleven of the historic dynasties under a mythic c loud, so to speak, 
and left one, the twelfth, to bask in the historic sunshine of his 
Second Book? 

Whether or not this was the arrangement, or whether, if it were, 
it was altogether the work of Manetho, there certainly appears 
connected with it something like what is called in modern vulgar 
phrase, " a shoving of the cards " or " a shoving of the queer," 
there heing a displacing of things for a purpose , the design here 
evidently being to obscure the subject and ren der it next to impos- 
sible to discover the truth concerning the progress of the history. 
There appears to be no doubt th at we may consider ourselves 
indebted for a good deal that comes to us under the name of Man- 
etho, to persons who succeeded him in time. 

A GENERAL REVIEW, ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON OF THE DYNASTIES 
IN RELATION TO THE AGGREGATE NUMBER OF 3555 YEARS, SAID TO 
HAVE BEEN GIVEN BY MaNETHO AS THE LIMIT OF THEIR DURATION 
FROM MENES TO NECTANEBO ; AND THE RESULT : 

We will now give a brief outline of Manetho's historical system ; 
and to begin with it may be remarked that in regard to his Primeval 
Chronology we are indebted to Eusebius, the Armenian, fur the 
only certain knowledge we have of this preliminary portion of his 
work. 

This whole opening period Manetho, according to Eusebius, com- 
puted at 24,900 years; and under three general divisions, namely, 
the dominion of Gods, Heroes and Manes. 

1. The dominion of Gods was divided into seven sections, a dif- 
ferent deity being at the head of each. The order is Ptah, Ea and 
Num, the Chnumis or Kneph of the Greeks (which correspond re- 
spectively to Vulcan, Helios, and Agathodaemon in the Greek and 
Roman Mythologies). Then the four still preserved in the Turin 
Papyrus of Wilkinson, namely, Chronus, Osiris, Typho, Horus 



28 MYTniCAL HISTORY. 

(i.e., Seb, Hesiri, Seth, Her). This Papyrus has enabled us to 
restore with certainty the first three dynasties. 

2. The dominion of Demi-Gods. The last of the rulers who 
succeeded the great Gods, Eusebius, without taking anymore pains 
to more nearly specify him, calls Bytis. 

Iamblichus says that Bitis or Bytis was a prophet of Amnion, 
the King, i.e., Hyk, Amnion's peculiar title. He interpreted the 
Hermetic Books, that is, he was the minister or priest of Amnion. 
It is hence assumed, that Manetho made the inferior deities succeed 
the Seven Great Gods; and this is clearly seen to be the case not 
only in the Papyrus but in the work attributed to a spurious 
Manetho, wherein they are called Demi-Gods. Eusebius, in the 
sequel, comprises the whole period ending with Bitys under the 
dominion of the Gods and says that, according to Manetho, it lasted 
13,900 years. There are, consequently, still 11,025 years remain- 
ing, which Eusebius sums up, but misplaces some of the items. 
The following, however, is considered the substance of Manetho's 
system. 

Tears. 

1. Dominion of the Gods in two divisions, the first of whicn ended with 

Horns, the second with Bitys 13,900 

2. Dominion of Heroes in two divisions ...... 1,255 

3. Heroes and Kings of the primeval race, transition from divine to human 

history 5,813 

4. Human history — Provincial Princes — as follows: — 

(«.) Kings, without particular notices (of Thebes?) . . . 1,817 

(b.) Thirty Memphites (Lower Egypt) ..'... . 1,790 

(c.) Ten Thiuites 350 

Sum total 24,925 

Neither the single sums here taken for gods, demi-gods, manes or 
mortals, nor the aggregate of them all hears the appearance of 
having been intended to be cyclical. As to the historical period in 
this enumeration it remains a question as to whether its three di- 
visions were reallv consecutive or whether the last was wholly or 
partially contemporary with the first. In the former way Manetho 
computed them. Investigators have assumed it, as a historically 
settled point, that the Egyptian tradition prior to the time of Menes 
admitted one dynasty of kings in Lower Egypt and one, at least, 
perhaps two, in Upper Egypt, during a period of from two to four 
thousand years. To these dynasties, which are perfectly dis- 
tinct from the mythological kings, whose history is connected 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 29 

rather with that of the Gods, the race of Menes succeeds. From 
the dawn of its history, Egypt appears to our view as an empire 
formed out of the Upper and Lower country. Egypt itself is 
usually called " the two countries." Down to the last period the 
title of their kings was, Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt. Mis- 
raim (Heb. Mestra-im, the two Mestra, Mizra) contains a similar 
allusion. 

As to how far those data of primeval Egyptian history may have 
been preserved in their genuine form or how far they may have 
been tampered with by Judaizing Christians and others has 
been with many investigators a matter of serious consideration. 
An expedient for reducing this sum of nearly 25,000 years to 2206 
by reckoning each year a mouth in order to bring them within the 
period, which, according to the Septuagint, intervened between the 
creation and the deluge (2242 years) was proposed by Eusebius. 
But for this he was taxed by the Byzantine writers with a misap- 
prehension of the deeper import of the ancient traditions ; nor is 
it thought that he could have been serious in a proposal, which 
would, in this case, have involved him in much absurdity, for after 
he should have so reduced the period of 350 years which is allotted 
to the last ten kings, these ten should not have reigned altogether 
30 years, which is not half the time that is put down for the reign 
of Menes, their own descendant. 

As regards the purely Mythological Dynasties there is no reason 
appearing to show that Manetho reduced the period of the Gods, 
nor the whole period prior to Menes, to Sothiac cycles of 14fil 
years each, or to any other class of astronomical periods. But, as 
regards the human period, the old Egyptian tradition did, as said 
before, recognize historical royal families prior to Menes. These, 
however, were separated from the divine founders of their nation 
by the sacred princes of the primeval times who were said to have 
reigned several thousand years. No family name having been 
assigned to their most ancient monarchs it is thought they may 
have been elective as to office, chosen by the priests, a form which 
we have seen, maintained itself to some degree in later historic 
times. 

In proceeding to give a brief synoptical review of the 30 dynas- 
ties of Manetho I may remark, as intimated before, that his narra- 
tive is no longer extant, with the exception of a few extracts in 
Josepbus and others ; but his lists we still possess, though in part 



30 MANETHO'S LISTS. 

in a somewhat mutilated condition. From the Papyrus we know 
that this synoptical form of exposition was the old Egyptian method- 

The lists which have come down to us through Africanus and 
Eusebiusgive but the names of the Kings in each dynasty and not 
always these, together with a notice of their years of reign 
without months or days. But, in Josephus, so far as he quotes, 
we find the old Egyptian computation by years and months ; and a 
notice, even giving the days, is said to be still preserved in these 
extracts. Of other minutiae also traces are found such as the affin- 
ity of the Kings with their predecessors and even their physical 
constitution. 

Manetho, therefore, according to his country's custom, appended 
to his historical text lists, constructed after the Hellenic fashion in 
a narrative and critical form, or incorporated them in sections in 
his history. The chronograph ers contented themselves with epi- 
tomizing those lists, inserting in them, here and there, remarks 
culled from the b ody of the work. 

Manetho, according to Syncellus, assigned to the whole Egypt- 
ian Empire from Menes to Nectambo (about 350 B. C.) a period 
of 3555 years. And now, that you may without further argument 
be convinced that the sums of th e numbers of years given for the 
dynasties are not to be reckoned continuously, you can take the 
aggregate of the years given for those dynasties and see how it will 
compare with this number of Manetho. 

The sura of the periods of the thirty dynasties is according to 
Africanus approximately 5319 years, which is 1764 years more 
than the number given by Syncellus, as from Manetho. Moreover, 
tire number given by Eusebius is approximately 4940 years, which 
is 1385 years more than that given by Manetho. What does this 
indicate? At first thou ght it might be taken to indicate that many 
of the dynasties, which are entered under Manetho's name as kings 
of Egypt, were merely provincial kings reigning contemporarily 
with the kings of all Egypt, whose seat was at Thebes or Memphis. 
Or, secondly, it might lie taken to mean that many of the kings 
with the numbers attached to their names appearing thuswise under 
the name of Manetho as sovereigns of Egypt are merely kings on 
paper, the names with their numbers arising from interpolation 
into the text after the time of Manetho. As mentioned before 
many of the dynasties in Manetho with the numbers to them are 
not recognized in the list of Eratosthenes, purporting to be of the 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 31 

Kings of Egypt for the same period, and from this, if not from any 
other cause, a person would think they did not belong to the history 
proper. 

Speaking of that period said to have consisted in Manetho of 12 
dynasties and which in Eratosthenes' list is represented by a suc- 
cession of 38 kings; beginning with Menes ; but which as I have 
mentioned before is as fairly represented in the 18th, 19th and 
20th dynasties of Manetho, when fully expressed, as it is in Era- 
tosthenes, the overplus in the aggregate of the Epitomists above 
Manetho's number arises mainly from the numbers given to the 
2nd dynasty, which is supposed to have been contemporary with 
the 3rd ; to that given to the 5th or Elephantine dynasty which is 
supposed to have been contemporaneous with the 4th and 6th or to 
have been provincial; and to the 9th and 10th or Herakleopolitan 
dynasties so called, which some supposed to have been provincial 
and contemporary with the Theban monarchs ; to that overplus 
also given to the 12th and 13th dynasties above what is given to the 
men representing them in Eratosthenes ; to the number given to the 
Choites as well as the 284- or 253, or whatever number that is of 
years which is set down to the first six Shepherd kings ; and which 
I have concluded, from the language of Josephus, is to be reck- 
oned in the 518 plus 151 plus X years, which are yet given to the 
Shepherd rule in Afrieanus, all of which is to be thought of when 
considering the overplus of years and dynasties in the Epitomists 
above the aggregate of years said to have been ascribed by Mane- 
tho for the thirty dynasties. 

It is to borne in mind in regard to this whole subject of the 
Egyptians and Shepherds that the dynasty of Menes itself was 
probably of Shepherd origin, if not of Libyan or Ethiopian Shep- 
herd, yet of Asiatic Shepherd origin ; and the Scriptures might be 
thought to strengthen the supposition of the Asiatic origin of the 
family of Menes, for they inform us that Mizraim,the son of Cham 
and grandson of Noah, whom some have (without giving sufficient 
attention to the chronology of the subject) thought to bo identical 
with Menes, settled Egypt and the adjacent parts of Africa, in- 
cluding Ethiopia and Libya after the flood. Moreover, when we 
speak of the sons of Abraham colonizing Africa, we are, it is seen, 
coming within one generation of Jacob, who, the Scriptures inform 
us, died in Egypt after a residence there of 17 years. Speaking of 
things after the death and burial of Sarah Josephus says (Ant. Bk. 



32 ABRAMITES IN AFRICA. 

1, ch. XV.): Abraham after this married Keturah, by whom he 
had six sons, men of courageous and sagacious minds: Zambran 
and Jazar and Madan and Madian and Josabak and Sous. Now the 
sons of Sous were Sabatha and Dadan ; the sons of Dadan were 
Latusim and Assur and Luom; the sons of Madian were Ephas 
and Ophren and Anocli and Ebidas and Eldas. Now all these sons 
and grandsons Abraham contrived to settle in colonies ; and they 
took possession of Troglodytis and the country of Arabia Felix, as 
far as it reaches to the Red Sea. It is related of this Ophren that 
he made war against Libya and took it ; and that his grandchildren 
(the first cousins to the ancestor of the twelve tribes) " when 
they inhabited it called it from his name, Africa; and, indeed, 
Alexander Polyhistor, gives his attestation to what I here say, who 
speaks thus : ' Cleodemus, the prophet, who was also called Malcus, 
who wrote a history of the Jews in agreement with the history of 
Moses, their legislator, relates that there were many sons born to 
Abraham by Keturah; nay, he names three of them, Apher and 
Surim and Japhran ; that from Surim was the land of Assyria de- 
nominated; and that from the other two (Apher and Japhran) 
the country of Africa took its name ; because these men were 
auxiliars to Hercules, when he fought against Libya and Antoeus 
and that Hercules (i.e., Aahmes or Menes), married Aphre's 
daughter and of her begot a son Diodorus; and that Sophon was 
his son, from whom that barbarous people called Sophacians were 
denominated. This would make the settlement of Egypt and the 
adjacent regions of Africa which was in any case, scripturally, by 
the descendants of Noah, to have been in this case of the tenth gen- 
eration from Mizraim, the grandson of Noah, but in the line of 
Shem and Arphaxed. Now, all history proves that the people of 
Abraham were eminently of the Shepherd and Scythic kind whicli 
was the case doubtless with their ancestors the people of Noah 
from high Asia. In fact the name of Egypt in the language of that 
country is Chemi or Schemi, the land of Cham, the son of Noah, 
which may have been given to the country after the name of Cham, 
whose people settled it. 

All this being so, therefore, there can be the less difficulty in 
conceiving how that the designations Elephantinean, Herakleop- 
olitan, Choithe (Chethites, i. e., Hittites) Shasu or Shepherds and 
the like are but different names for the same people, either as a 
whole or in regard to different tribes of the same. But the fact of 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 33 

so many different dynasties being recorded indicates that there 
were not only distinctions recognized among the clans of descend- 
ants of Menes, but that intruding dynasts from Asia and Ethiopia 
may have occasionally occupied the Egyptian throne, which last 
the historian informs us was the case, after the 38th ruler as given 
in Eratosthenes. 

For a chronological connection of the dynasties, so far as an 
aggregation of the numbers annexed to them are concerned, in 
order to reasonably get a sum to square with the aggregate, said to 
have been given by Manetho, the following dynasties have been 
suggested: The 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th, 11th and 12th 
dynasties and up to 235, say, in the 13th, or arbitrarily in this case, 
until we, counting in what is given for those dynasties, which come 
alter and whose numbers may appear to be better authenticated, ar- 
rive at a number, which will square with Manetho's, that is, 
supposing him to have begun his list and his reckoning with Menes. 
Let us take the figures given in Africanus of the dynasties mentioned 
as follows : — 

Years. 

1st. Dynasty 263 

3d " 214 

4th " 284 

6th " 203 

7th and 8th " „ 146 

11th " 43 

12th << 160 

13th " up to 235 

1548 

14th, 15th and 16th dynasties 518 

17th, " 151 

18th to 30th dynasties inclusive 1338 

3555 

This, of course, is to an extent arbitrary, as I have said ; for after 
excluding from the enumeration down to the 13th dynasty all not 
put down under the head of Theban or Memphite ; and after se- 
lecting from those two such as some believed did carry on the thread 
of the Chronology, I then took from the sum given to the 13th 
dynasty, just the number of years I wanted to fill out Manetho's 
aggregate of 3555 years; that is, in connection with the numbers 
given by Africanus for the Shepherd dynasties and those that 

3— c 



34 MANETHO'S DYNASTIES. 

came after to the 30th inclusive. It is, however, allowed to be un- 
certain whether Manetho may not have begun to reckon from some 
dynasty antecedent to Menes, so that there can be nothing definite 
about this aggregate number of Mauetho'sas it comes to us through 
Syncellus. If we had taken the aggregate number which appears 
to be given by Africanus for the 30 dynasties, we would have as said 
above, 5319 years or 1764 years over Mauetho's number, which 
renders it certain that, if all these numbers were entered by him 
and if he had stated correctly the aggregate number given by Man- 
etho, he could not have understood the dynasties as succeeding 
3ach other in chronological order. 

It is over the old Empire andthe Middle or that of the Hykshos, 
so called, that the obscurity is found to hang. As regards the New 
Empire, so called, it is taken as demonstrated that no two dynasties 
from the 18th to the 30th inclusive, were contemporary and the 
aggregate number of years given for the individual reigns for this 
period (if weexcept the aggregate given to the 18th, 19th and 20th 
dynasties, so called, which as I have said represent when properly 
expressed the whole preceding history from Menes), seems on the 
whole, to be not unreasonable. 

Everything goes to show us that Thebes and Memphis were the 
recognized orthpdox seats of the undivided monarchy of Egypt and 
when, for example, we meet in the 5th, 9th, and 10th dynasties, so 
called, of that old monarchy with the djmastic names, Elephantinean 
and Herakleopolitan, which name, at least, in either case is not re- 
pugnant to a Shepherd extraction; and in the 14th dynasty, so 
called, with 76 Choite (Chethite) kings, whose name shows them 
to have been Shepherds and whose average reign from the aggre- 
gate number of years (184) given them in Africanus' is only 21 
years or from that given them in Eusebius (484) is not quite &\ 
years, we simply make up our mind that these are but repetitions 
of the names and numbers of the regular kings under slightly vary- 
in^ - forms, or that they are interpolations by later hands than 
Manetho's for the purpose of obscuring the subject, perhaps in order 
to support some historico-religious theory as to origin. 

The statement of Syncellus as to the aggregate number reckoned 
by Manetho for his 30 dynasties appears, at first sight, as if it 
mi "lit be straightforward and true : ' ' The period of the hundred and 
thirteen generations reckoned by Manetho in his three volumes com- 
prises a sum total of three thousand fivehundred and fifty-five years." 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 35 

This would make it appear that Manetho reckoned back by gen- 
erations, giving the average length of life at nearly oU years, and 
that his aggregate number of years is reckoned back from about the 
15th year before Alexander the Great or that in which the younger 
Nectanebo died, to Menes. This Nectanebo Syncellus represents 
as the last Egyptian king described by Manetho and the last Pha- 
raoh of the old Egyptian race. He is lost to our treatment j n 
about 350 or 352 B. C. " From his date," says Syncellus, " he ' 
(Manetho) "reckons his 3555 years up to the year of the world 
1586 (properly 1593). Consequently, 352+3555+1593 = 5500 
years B. C, for the creation, according to this reckoning, instead 
of 4004 as the Biblical Chronology has it, or 6000 as the Babylo- 
nian appears to be. 

It is supposed by the theorists that Syncellus found this state- 
ment in a section of the epitome of Africanus, the remainder of 
which he did not copy ; or that he may have fouDd the statement 
in one of the copies of the lists of Manetho, which he mentions as 
having collated. 

It is seen, therefore, we have on the same authority the sum 
total of the thirty dynasties given as from 1500 to 2000 more 
than Manetho himself is said to have assigned for the period ; 
consequently the aggregate of the dynasties as they have reached 
us are far from being the work of Manetho. It has been suggested 
that the meaning of the latter was that the duration of the Old and 
Middle Empires was 3555 years minus the 1350 years or so which 
he assigned to the New Empire or in round numbers 2200 years. 
And now, it so happens, that if we leave out the reckoning for the 
Middle Empire, so called, altogether and aggregate the sums of the 
numbers given to the dynasties by Africanus and Eusebius from 
the first to the 12th dynasty, so called, inclusive and in order as 
they would appear to have reigned and to this add the sum for the 
New Empire, so called, we shall have about that number of years, 
which will dispense with a Middle Empire and connect the 12th 
dynasty chronologically with the 18th, so called. 

The natural way we are apt to think of those dynasties in rela- 
tion to the numbers of years set down against them respectively 
is that they reigned successively over Egypt, as they appear in 
the list to have done, aud for the numbers of years ascribed to 
them respectively. But this we cannot begin to do with the 
dynasties and the numbers ascribed to them in Africanus and be 
consistent with Africanus or his interpreter and editor Syncellus. 



36 MANETHO'S DYNASTIES. 

In case there arose any reasonable ground for suspicion that any 
part of this ancient history of Egypt had been manufactured for a 
purpose, as to support some hypothesis, as before intimated, then 
there are many reasons why such suspicion would first rest on the 
Middle Empire, so called, being such in this case that there are no 
two authors found to agree in their data concerning it. Look at 
the exhibits of the data which Africanus, Eusebius and Syncellus 
give us of their Middle Empire. Wilkinson, when he found them 
so much disagreed, was perfectlyjustified in striking out on an inde- 
pendent path of his own, and tabulating a system which he 
thought might mutually support and be supported by the Bible; 
but in carrying out this plan he acted somewhat arbitrarily. The 
eight Tanites which he found the " Old Egyptian Chronicle " gave 
to the 16th dynasty he said he preferred to what Africanus or 
Eusebius ascribed thereto; but then he went to work and added to 
this very dynasty, which he had found already replete with men 
and years (in "the old chronicle ! ") three names more which he 
succeeded in picking up upon the monuments. He knew he could 
not put the whole seven of his Osirtasens and Amun-m-Gori's 
into the 17th dynasty, so called, and yet agree with " the Old 
Chronicle" and so he added three to the 16th, already full, as I 
have said, with kings and years, and then he made himself agree 
with " the Old Chronicle " and Eusebius in giving four of the seven 
names to the 17th dynasty. The works of Wilkinson on Egypt 
are, on the whole, interesting and valuable and their author was 
undoubtedly a well meaning man. 











Eusebius and 






Africanus. 




Syncellus. 


Dynasty. 




Years. 




Years. 


1st 


Dynasty 


253 




258 


2nd 


>< 


302 




297 


3rd 


ii 


214 




198 


4th 


(< 


274 or 284 




448 


5th 


(i 


218 




100 


6th 


«< 


203 




203 


7st and 8th 


(< 


142 and 70 


days 


100 and 75 days 


9th 


«< 


409 




100 


10th 


c< 


185 




185 


11th 


<< 


59 




59 


12th 


<< 


160 




182 



2,419 and 70 days 2,130 and 75 days 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 37 

The numbers here, as is seen, fluctuate a little in general ; but 
there arr, two in particular which need to be noticed. As to the 
number 448 years for the 4th dynasty Eusebius in Syncellus and in 
the Armenian version are agreed upon that number of years dis- 
tributed to 17 kings for that dynasty, which would leave a little 
over 26 years for the average reign, which appears too high an 
average. Under the head of the same dynasty Africanus has 274 
or 284 years distributed among 8 kings, which leaves the average 
reign to be 34| or 35^ years ; and this, being far too great an aver- 
age for experience, is therefore much more improbable than the 
other proportion makes it to be. 284 years is exactly what Africanus 
allows to his first six Shepherd kings of his 15th dynasty, which 
giving 47i years of average reign is still more unreasonable than 
this he gives us for his 4th. There being 8 kings for the 4th 
dynasty and 9 for the 5th in Africanus it is reasonable to suppose 
that in Eusebius both these numbers are found compounded under 
one head, representing his 4th dynasty of 17 kings. This appears 
the more reasonable conclusion, first, because Eusebius gives only 
two names, Othoes and Phiops, both names meaning giants (Ele- 
phantin), under his fifth dynasty ; and secondly, because he, not 
seeming to specify any particular number of years for that, his fifth 
dynasty (Syncellus loosely gives 100), still has the sum of the 
numbers of years, as given for the 4th and 5th dynasties from him, 
to compare respectably with the sum of the numbers given in Afri- 
canus for the same dynasties ; viz. : 448+100=548 years for Euse- 
bius ; and 284+218=502 for Africanus' 4th and 5th dynasties. 

The next numbers which I have to remark upon in these two 
columns, as presenting the most remarkable difference as standing for 
the same dynasty, is that representing the 9th, which in Africanus 
is 409 years, distributed among 19 kings, thus admitting an average 
reign of about 21^ years, which of itself appears not unreasonable. 
Eusebius for the same dynasty has 100 years distributed among 4 
kings, thus giving an average reign of 25 years. In neither of these 
lists, if they may in the case be called lists, is the name of any 
king mentioned, excepting one, Achthoes, which name means a 
giant. They say he was a most fearful man among his own peo- 
ple, and was finally killed by a crocodile. Nor does either of them 
give any name for the following dynasty, the 10th, in which each 
distributes to 19 kings 185 years, thus allowing an average reign of 
not quite 10 years. The sum of the kings for these two dynasties 



38 MANETHO'S DYNASTIES. 

appears to be either 19 or 23. The 19 kings being repeated for 
such unequal numbers of years in both the dynasties by Africanus 
shows there must be a mistake by repetition of this number. Eu- 
sebius, however, giving 4 instead of 19 for his 10th dynasty, may 
imply a probability in favor of the sum of the apparent numbers 19 
and 4 equals 23 kings for the two dynasties. The sum of 409 and 
185 is 594 years, which, divided by 19 kings, gives a little over 31 
years, and by 23 kings nearly 26 years as the average reign for 
these two dynasties, while divided by 38 or 19+19, the sum of the 
kings in Africanus, it gives somewhat over 15^- years as the average 
reign. This last length of average reign, such a long period being 
considered, is more probable than the 31 years average reign for 
19, but, perhaps, less probable than the 26 years average for 23 
kings. 

But as to the distribution of the number of years in this case, it 
appears that Eusebius went off content with only half his share, for 
100+185 = 285, to which if we add the same number, 285, we .shall 
have 570, which is so near as to look very like the sum of the two 
numbers in Africanus, viz., 594. 

Let it suffice to say in addition concerning this topic that Afri- 
canus has more and Eusebius less than his share of the years in this 
case, and that, had a fair division been made between them, there 
would now appear an equal sum under each of the two columns down 
to the end of the 12th dynasty. To effect an adjustment we take 
289 (the difference between the numbers appearing under the two 
columns) from 2419, the number appearing under the column of 
Africanus, and add it, in equal parts, to the numbers left under the 
two columns, and we have as a result under both 2274.5 years, which 
must be the same for both, representing, as it does, the same period. 
But I have thought it strange, in adding up the columns with some 
of the slightly fluctuating numbers given on both sides for the 
dynasties, to find that, in one case, the half of the difference be- 
tween the two columns was 150 or 151, which is the number of 
years given by Africanus for his 17th dynasty. 

If, now, we subtract this result, which we find to be the limit 
in years of these first 12 dynasties, viz., 2274.5, from the number 
given by Manetho himself as the limit in years of his 30 dynasties, 
viz., 3555 years, we have the number 1280.5 as the limit in years 
of his New Empire. If to this last result we add 352 years B. C, 
which is the near approximate date at which the history loses sight 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 39 

of the younger Nectambo, the last indigenous King of the 30th 
Egyptian dynasty, we shall have 1280.5 + 352= 1633 B. C, as 
the approximate date of the middle life of Aahmes, the first Kiug 
of the 18th dynasty, as according to this reckoning. In the life 
of this King Clement of Alexandria places Moses and the Exodus 
and his date I find by calculation to be about 1647 B. C. Clement 
as follows: — 

After he has given in (Stromata 1. 1451 a review of Jewish 
Chronology he lays down the following data for the era of Moses : — 

From the birth of Moses to the Exodus .... 80 years. 
From thence to his death 40 " 

Consequently Moses went out of Egypt 645 years before the 
Sothiac period. 

The Sothiac period occurring in 1322 B. C, this places the Exo- 
dus in 1667 B. C, that is about 650 years before the building of 
the temple ; but this is hardly the understanding of Clement, as 
will be seen from his reckoning as follows : — 

" From Moses and Inachus " (which synchronism, admitted by Tatian 
after Ptolemy and Apion, aopears to have been a settled point with Cle- 
mens) — " to Deucalion, Phaethon and Cecrops, four generations, reckoning 
three to a century, 

Tears. 
make 138 

From the Flood of Deukalion to the Daktuloi of Mount Ida, according to 

Thrasyllus 73 

Thence to the rape of Ganymede 65 

Thence to the expedition of Perseus (Isthmian Games) .... 15 

Thence to the building of Troy 34 

Thence to the Argonauts 64 

Thence to Theseus and the Minotaur 32 

Thence to the ' Seven before Thebes '........ 10 

Thence to the establishment of the Olympic Games by Hercules ... 3 

Thence to the expedition of the Amazons 9 

Thence to the deification of Hercules 11 

Thence to the Rape of Helen 4 

Here there is an omission of (To the Taking of Troy) .... 10 

The continuation according to Eratosthenes : — 

From the capture of Troy to the Heraclidse 80 

Thence to the foundation of the Ionaian Colonies 60 

Thence to the Protectorship of Lycurgus iy._> 

Thence to the first Olympiad 108 

870" 



40 

This sum of 870 years terminates with the year before the first 
Olympiad. If, therefore, we add to this number 777 we obtain 
1647 B. C, which must have been the date Clement had in his mind 
for the reign of Aahmes, and the Exodus. This date leaves about 
630 years between the Exodus and the building of the Temple of 
Solomon, which differs by 150 years from the time given by the 
Bible, viz., 480 years. 

This latter Usher's chronology, which is our common Biblical 
chronology, took as its measure. In like manner Josephus has the 
Exodus to take place in the reign of this Aahmes, giving the date 
variously at 592 and 612 years before the founding of the Temple. 
And another computation which places Moses (probably his birth) 
602 years before the deification of Bacchus and follows the reckoning 
of Apollodorus, gives (it is thought owing to a misprint) a consid- 
erably earlier date : 1765 or 1785 B. C, for the date oflnachus 
(contemporary with Moses). This would give for the Exodus 
1685 or 1705 B. C. 

On the other hand, Apion, the contemporary of Josephus, 
placed the date of the Exodus in the first year of the 7th Olympiad 
or about the year 751 B. C. In regard to Moses he says : " I have 
heard of the ancient men of Egypt that Moses was of Heliopolis^ 
and that he thought himself obliged to follow the customs of his 
forefathers and offered his prayers in the open air, towards the city 
walls; but that he reduced them all to be directed towards the 
sun-rising, which was agreeable to the city of Heliopolis; that he, 
also, set up pillars instead of guomons, under which was repre- 
sented a cavity like that of a boat and the shadow that fell from 
their tops fell down upon that cavity, that it might go round about 
the like course as the sun itself goes round inthe other." (c. Apian 
Bk. II. 2.) In regard to the Exodus he related that Moses con- 
cealed himself on Sinai 40 days before the delivery of the Law ; that 
the Israelites, 110,000 strong, marched in six days to Judaea, and 
that as by this rapid march they got boils, " sabbo," in Egyptian, 
which language they spoke, they called the seventh day the 
Sabbath." 

Even if this relation of Apion arose from a tradition, it is evident 
the man himself did not believe in its extravagances ; but he relates 
it because he knew it would entertain his patrons, the Alexandrians, 
who were at that time jealous of the wealthy Israelites of the city. 
It is said of him, that he was " a man versed in all the pettinesses 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 41 

of antiquarian pedantry, who endeavored to spoil the trade of the 
Egyptian Ciceroni of his day," and to deprive them of those profits 
which they were accustomed to derive from their attentions to 
travelers of distinction. In speaking about the pyramids Pliny 
mentions him as a dabbler in antiquities generally. 

Chaeremon, from whose Egyptian history Josephus quotes in his 
treatise against Apion, mentions a tradition of the Israelitish exo- 
dus, as having taken place in the time of Amenophis and his son 
Sethos, who were the sou and grandson of the great Sesostris. 
The relation of Chaeremon, as quoted by Josephus, is as follows: 
" The Goddess Isis appeared to Amenophis in his sleep and blamed 
him that her temple had been destroyed in the war ; but that Priti- 
phantes, the sacred scribe said to him that in case he should purge 
Egypt of the men that had polutions upon them he should be no 
longer troubled with such frightful apparitions. That Amenophis 
accordingly chose out two hundred and fifty thousand of those that 
were thus diseased and cast them out of the country; that Moses 
and Joseph were scribes, Joseph being a sacred scribe ; that their 
names were originally Egyptian, that of Moses having been Tisithen 
and that of Joseph Peteseph; that these two came to Pelusium and 
lighted upon 380,000 that had been left there by Amenophis, he 
not being willing to carry them into Egypt ; that these scribes made 
a league of friendship with them and made with them an expedition 
against Egypt ; that Amenophis could not resist their attacks, but 
immediately fled into Ethiopia and left his wife with child behind 
him, who lay concealed in certain caverns and there brought 
forth a son, whose name was Mesene, and who, when he was grown 
up to man's estate, pursued the Jews into Syria, being about 
200,000 men, and then received his father, Amenophis out of 
Ethiopia." 

This narrative even though it arose from some tradition, would 
hardly be considered as historical, but rather of a legendary char- 
acter. It gives the name of Sethos, of the lists, the son of Ameno- 
phis, as Mesene and differs from the account given by Josephus, 
as from Manetho (which states that Sethos was five years old when 
his father retreated to Ethiopia) in saying that the son of Ameno- 
phis was not yet born at the time of the departure of his father, 
but that his mother pregnant with him was concealed in a cave. 
According to this then, Sethos or Mesene would be born on the eve 
of his father's departure for Ethiopia and so would be 13 instead of 



42 LEGENDS AS TO EXODUS. 

18 years old at the time of his father's return from Ethiopia, if, as 
according to the other account, his absence had been only for 13 
years. There is, however, here a little different face on the mat- 
ter, for it says " when he (Mesene) was grown up to man's estate 
(he) pursued the Jews into Syria, being about 200,000 men, and 
then received his father Amenophis out of Ethiopia." This might 
imply the absence of Amenophis to have been for more than 13 
years; for at the age of 13 his son could not have been expected to 
have done much to rid the country of a government, which had 
been established in its administration for that number of years ; 
however, he might have done something to expedite the return of 
his father with his army by which the liberation of his country from 
foreign domination might have been effected. Manetho's version 
of this as quoted by Josephus, I will give farther on. This man 
Chaeremon lived somewhat earlier than Apion and is quoted by 
Porphyry as a distinguished writer upon Egyptian theology. In 
his letter to Anebo the latter writer gives, after Chaeremon, a de- 
scription of the whole Egyptian Mythology. The extract from 
that letter, found in Eusebius (Praep. Evangel, v. 10) represents 
Chaeremon as stating that the most ancient Egyptian deities were 
the planets, the constellations of the Zodiac, and others, with the 
Decans and Horoscopi. 

Porphyry, again in his treatise on " Abstinence from Animal 
Food," quotes Chaeremon, the Stoic, concerning a commentary on 
the office and habits of the priesthood, which indicates its authentic 
character as embodying the doctrine of the Egyptian books. He 
describes him as an accurate writer and much respected among the 
Stoic philosophers. He, moreover, quotes from him the remark 
that the Egyptian priests ranked among their own countrymen as 
philosophers, that is, were recognized among them as the philos- 
ophers were among the Greeks. The account which Chaeremon 
gives of the departure of the Israelites under Moses Josephus re- 
futes, and, consequently does not paint his character in such bright 
colors as by the forementioned has been done. 

In relation to the same legend as he claims it was given by Man- 
etho Josephus (c. Apion 1. 26) states that " the Shepherds," 
whom he claimed to have been ancestors of the Jews, had left 
Egypt and went up and built Jerusalem when a king named Teth- 
mosis ruled Egypt and that from that time till the time of the 
brothers Sethos (Sesostris) who was otherwise called iEgyptus, 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 43 

and Armais, who was also called Danaus (to which time the legend 
we are now considering referred) there had intervened, according 
to his own reckoning, a period of 333 years, and down to another 
king, Amenophis, who persecuted the Hebrews in a notorious man- 
ner, by compelling them to work in the quarries, etc., there inter- 
vened 518 years. Bunsen put the time between the departure of 
the Shepherds and that of the Israelites under Moses at 215 years 
and he makes the exodus to have taken place in the days of Amen- 
ophis, the son of this Sethos here spoken of. Concerning this king 
Amenophis who is involved in the narrative of this legend, Josephus 
says : — 

"This king desired to become a spectator of the Gods, as did 
Orus, one of his predecessors in the Kingdom desired the same. 
He also communicated his desire to his namesake, Amenophis, the son 
of Papis, who seemed to partake of a divine nature, both as to sagacity 
and the prescience of future events. This, his namesake informed 
him that it was possible for him to see the Gods if he could clear 
the whole country completely of the lepers and of the other im- 
pure people. The king was pleased with this counsel and collected 
together all that had any defect in their bodies in Egypt. These 
to the number of eighty thousand he sent to those quarries, which 
are on the eastern side of the Nile, that they might work in them 
and thus be separated from the rest of the Egyptians. There 
were some of those who were afflicted with the leprosy, who were 
learned priests and that Amenophis, the wise man and prophet 
was afraid lest in case there should be any violence offered these 
priests, the gods should become angry with himself and the king. 
From his prescience of the future, he moreover said that certain 
people would fight for the assistance of those defiled people and 
would hold the government of Egypt for thirteen years. This 
man, Amenophis, thought he dared not himself inform the king of 
those things which were about to come to pass, and so, having left a 
writing behind him informing the king of those matters he slew him- 
self, an act which indeed took all heart away from the King. After 
thesethings the King writes thus verbatim : "After those who were 
sent to work in the quarries had continued a long time in that 
wretched state, the King having been sufficiently recompensed by 
their services and his honor having been sufficiently vindicated, sets 
apart for their habitation and protection the city of Avaris which 
had been left desolate by the Shepherds. Now, this city was, ac- 



44 LEGENDS. 

cording to the ancient theology, the city of Typho, and when these 
men were gotten together in it and found the place suitable for a 
revolt, they appointed themselves from among the priests of 
Heliopolis a leader whose name was Osarsiph, and to him they 
took an oath that they should obey him in all things. He there- 
upon, in order, enacted a law for them which prohibited them from 
worshiping the Egyptian Gods, enjoined upon them not to 
abstain from any of those animals which the Egyptians deemed 
sacred and hold in the highest reverence ; but kill and de- 
stroy them all ; and prevented them from attaching themselves to 
any one excepting those of their own confederation. When he 
had enacted many laws such as these and others, many which were 
repugnant to the cherished customs of the Egyptians, he issued 
orders that they should employ the multitude of hands they had in 
erecting walls about their city and make themselves ready for a 
war with Amenophis, the King, while he took into his own friend- 
ship the other priests and those that were polluted with them and 
sent ambassadors to those Shepherds who had been driven out of 
the country by Tethmosis to the city called Jerusalem. Thus he 
informed them of his own affairs and of those others who had been 
treated in such an ignominious manner and desired that they should 
come forthwith to assist him in a war against Egypt. He also 
promised that he would first reinstate them in Avaris, the patri- 
mony of their ancestors and provide an abundant maintenance for 
their multitude, that he would protect and fight for them as occa- 
sion should require and would easily reduce the country beneath 
their sway. 

These (Jews) were all delighted with the message and came away 
all together with great promptitude, being in number, two hundred 
myriads (thousands) of men, and in a little time they reached Avaris. 
And now Amenophis, the king of Egypt, having been informed of 
their invasion, was greatly perturbed, especially on his calling to 
mind what Amenophis, the son of Papis* ( Apappus ) had foretold to 
him, and, first of all, he having assembled the multitude of the 
Egyptians, took counsel with their leaders and sent for these sacred 
animals to be brought to him, especially for those that were princi- 
pally honored in the temples and distinctly charged the priests that 
they should conceal the images of their gods with the utmost care. 



* t'.e. Apapus or Sesostris the Great, which points to 'Amenophis, the son of Papis, being 
identical with Amenophis, the son of Sesostris, and to the present story as being allegorical. 



CRITICAL, REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 45 

His son, Sethos, who was also called Rameses, after the name of his 
father, Rampsis, he placed with a friend of his own. He then 
marched through with the rest of his Egyptians, who were in num- 
ber three hundred thousand fighting men, against the enemy, yet 
he did not join battle with them, but thinking that would be to fight 
against the Gods he returned and came to Memphis. Here he took 
Apis and the other sacred animals, which he had sent to be brought 
to him and straightforwardly with them marched into Ethiopia, to- 
gether with his whole army and a multitude of Egyptians; for it 
happened that the king of Ethiopia was under an obligation to him, 
on which account he received him and cared for all the multitude 
that was with him, while his country supplied necessaries in abund- 
ance for the food of the men. He also allotted cities and villages 
for this people during their banishment which were to be absent from 
their own country for thirteen years, and, as a guard to King 
Amenophis, he placed a camp for his Ethiopian army upon the bor- 
ders of Egypt. Such was the state of things in Ethiopia. But the 
people of Jerusalem having come down in company with the polluted 
Egyptians treated the men in such a barbarous manner that those 
who saw how they subdued the fore-mentioned country and the 
horrid wickedness whereof they were guilty, thought it a very 
dreadful thing ; for not only did they set the cities and villages on 
fire, but were not satisfied till they were guilty of sacrilege and de- 
stroyed the images of the gods and used them in roasting those 
sacred animals, which used to be worshiped, and forced the priests 
and prophets to be the executioners and slayers of those animals 
and then ejected them naked from the country. It was also re- 
ported that the priest, who ordained their polity and their laws, was 
by birth of Heliopolis, and his name Osarsiph, from Osiris, who was 
the god of Heliopolis; but that when he was gone over to those peo- 
ple, his name was changed and he was called Moses." 

" These things," remarks Josephus, " the Egyptians relate about 
the Jews with much more which I omit for the sake of brevity. 
But still proceeds Manetho." 

" After these things Amenophis returned from Ethiopia with a 
great army, as did his son Rampses with another army also, and 
both of them having joined battle with the Shepherds and the pol- 
luted people, worsted and slew a great number of them and pur- 
sued them to the confines of Syria." 

I thought it my duty to give this in full, translating from the 



46 LEGENDARY ACCOUNTS. 

Greek. The tradition in Manetho and Chaei-emon is evidently the 
same with such variations as are characteristic of legendary tales. 
It has been remarked that Manetho relates it as a legend or tradi- 
tion well authenticated, Chaeremon more as a matter of history ; I 
have not perceived the difference, nor, if I did would I deem it 
necessary to notice it. The legendary or romantic character of the 
tale is patent throughout in both. Upon such a foundation as this 
narration must they build who make the Exodus under Moses to take 
place under this Amenophis or Sethos, here spoken of. Not so 
with Usher, whose chronology is followed in the Bible, who places 
it at the time of the evacuation of Egypt by the Shepherds, thought 
to have been in about 1500 to 1490 years before Christ, or 42 years 
earlier. 

To some theologians this legendary Exodus appears as real be- 
cause they think they see in it a correspondence to the Biblical 
account of the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt and their 
being compelled to labor at brick-making and in building the treas- 
ure cities of Pithom and Raamses for Pharaoh (Ex. I). I know 
the mind of good men experience, what we may call a sort of pleas- 
ure tinged with sadness in such contemplation, for they are accus- 
tomed in their meditations to dwell much upon the fact of God's 
people in all ages having been the objects of the oppression of the 
proud and wicked. 

But with regard to the bondage and oppression of the Israelites 
in Egypt if this did not take place in full prior to the historical 
Exodus, it certainly was not because there had not been time and 
opportunity for it. I have no doubt whatever that oppression 
was in Egypt carried out to a very grievous extent and that many 
Israelites as well as multitudes of Egyptians groaued long in that 
country under their oppressors and taskmasters. 

In regard to the tradition of Clement of Alexandria, Africanus 
and others, who imagined they had Manetho and Joscphus as their 
authority that the Exodus took place in the time of Aahmes, the 
first king of the 18th dynasty, and not under Tethmosis III., Bun- 
sen (Egypt 1, 200), says: "But does Manetho really assert 
that the Exodus or the taking and destruction of Avaris and the 
departure of the Shepherds took place under Amos? By no 
means. According to the extract in Josephus it was Tuth- 
mosis, the son of Misphiamuthosis, who made the convention 
with the Shepherds, and we venture confidently to assert, in 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OE ANCIENT EGYPT. 47 

opposition to Josephus, that he was a Tuthmosis and cannot be an 
Amos." 

In regard to this matter it is quite plain that a man may have 
two names, something that history shows not to have been uncom- 
mon in the case of the ancient kings. It appears, however, a 
plain enough historical fact that the Aahmos he refers to was not the 
king known as Tuthmosis III., but his grandfather or great-grand- 
father. That it was this Amos that Josephus himself calls Tuth- 
mosis is shown by the fact that after mentioning him he goes on in 
his reckoning to Tuthmosis, the son of Misphramuthosis, as he 
calls him, or Tuthmosis III. I at first wondered that Bunsen had 
not this more plain in his mind, but I have thereon reflected that 
it was in the first volume of his " Egypt " he speaks thus and that 
before he got over the fifth volume of the same work he had his 
mind more clear on the subject. Josephus here confounds Amos 
or Tuthmosis, as he calls him, with an event that did not occur 
until the third generation after him. And, as another instance of a 
man being known by two names, which after all may be found to 
be only two variations of the same, yon must have noticed in the 
legendary account of the Exodus we have just quoted, how that 
Sethos, the son of Amenophis, was also called in Chaeremon's ac- 
count Mesene. The story appears evidently to be connected with 
the son of the great Rameses-Sesostris, who is said to have em- 
ployed the great numbers of prisoners brought into the country 
after his father's campaigns in the execution of public works, build- 
ing cities, walls, making canals, etc. 

As to the date and nature of the Exodus or the departure of the 
Shepherds : — 

A corrollary from what follows as well as precedes. 

Recognizing the importance of determining the nature and date 
of that called the departure of the Shepherds from Egypt, as being 
a departure which Josephus identifies with that called the Exodus 
of the Israelites from that country and as being a date to which 
other ancient epochs are referred in the determination of his- 
torical dates or synchronisms, I have, after a considerably exten- 
sive research and lengthy investigation and comparison of data, 
concluded that the people called Shepherds were most probably 
^Egyptians of the race of Menes and part of the vast army which 
Sesostris the Great led out of iEgypt into Asia and that this de- 



48 DEPARTURE OF THE SHEPHERDS. 

parture took place in 1542 B. C, in the 19th year of the reign of that 
monarch, under his name of Apapus the Great, as reckoned on the 
basis of Eratosthenes. Sesostris brought his vast army of iEgvp- 
tian Shepherds of the race of Meues from the Nile's Valley into Asia, 
where he conquered the government of every country to which he 
came in Asia and Europe, leaving ^Egyptian colonies after him in 
some places. Herodotus speaks of the Colchians as being descend- 
ants of an Egyptian colony planted by Sesostris and mentions 
them in connection with the Phoenicians and Syrians of Palestine 
as agreeing with the Egyptians in other things as well as in the 
practice of circumcision. The Palestinian colony, which gave name 
to that country are set down in our books as Philistines. This 
term means Shepherds (Palai-Schcth after whom also the local name 
Pelusium), and they are also the same with theChithim or Hitties. 
These are the people who gave the lines of Kings to Judah and 
Israel, if not to Tyre, Sidon, Carthage, etc. These are the Caph- 
torira, or people of Caphtor, of whom God speaks to Moses : " The 
Caphtorim, who came up out of Caphtor destroyed them (i.e., the 
Avims), and dwelt in their stead." And, again, God says through 
Amos (ch. ix: 7): "Have I not brought up Israel out of the 
land of Egypt and the Philistines from Caphtor? " Here both the 
Israelites and Philistines are specified as being brought from the 
land of Egypt by Jehovah. 

The date I give for the departure of the Shepherds is the same 
which Bunsen gives, who was correct, doubtless, as to the date, but 
will be found before we get through with our critical review to have 
been incorrect as to other matters concerning it. Eratosthenes' 
date for Apapus is, doubtless, nearly correct. There is some proof 
for the date of this King other than what results from the additions, 
synchronisms, etc., of the historic data. It is of an astronomical 
character, connected with theSothiac cycle, and is as follows ; One 
of five important monuments, which were particularly examined by 
the French archaeologists, Biot and DeRouge, was a dilapidated 
calendar discovered at Elephantina in Upper Egypt, which con- 
tained a distinct notation of the rising of Sirius on a given day and 
must have belonged to the latter part of this reign. The frag- 
ments of that calendar, dug out from the wall of the present quay 
of Elephantina, in which they stood, were found when put together 
to contain the following inscription : — 

"Inundation; third month (Epiphi). Third day, risiny of 
Sothis; Festival, etc." 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORT OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 49 

This inscription iudicates the 28th day of the 11th month of the 
Egyptian year. There are, consequently, 37 more days between 
this and the 1st of Thoth. 

Viz: 2 days of Epiphi. 

30 " " Mesari (the 12th month). 
5 intercalary days. 



37 



As one of these days represents 4 years of the Sothiac cyole, 
then 37 X 4 days = 148 years of that cycle, which must elapse be- 
fore Sirius rises on the 1st of Thoth. To find the date of the 
monument we must, therefore, add 148 to the year of the astron- 
omical epoch. 

This in Central Egypt (28° 11' N. L.) is 1322 B. C. Then 
1322+148=1470 B. C, would be the date indicated by the calendar. 
According to Eratosthenes' reckoning this would be the ninth year 
before the death of Apapus the Great, that is, Sesostris. This, 
however, can only be approximative as to the date. The investiga- 
tors into the subject of the chronolgy of the history of ancient 
Egypt soon came to the conclusion that the only monuments on 
which they could rely for absolute dates were the local calendars, 
which mark the rising of Sirius and were connected with the name 
of the reigning Pharaoh. In regard to the Sothiac cycle, which in 
round numbers is usually reckoned at 1460 years (365X4), the 
date of 1322, for example, fixed for it, is an average one, corre- 
sponding, as said before, to Central Egypt, Lat. 28° 11' N., which 
is generally agreed upon for astronomical purposes. The length 
of Egypt from Heliopolis to Syene being about six degrees, the 
difference in the extreme points makes a difference in the Sothiac 
cycle of 24 years ; for the difference of one degree to the south or 
north is almost equal to the difference of a day or four years in 
the cycle. 

Moreover, as in the movable year there is always the loss of 
nearly a quarter of a day, by neglecting the fraction beyond 365, 
the difference between the Sothiac and the true solar year will 
amount in four years to a whole day. Hence it follows that in 
365X4=1460 years the neglect of intercalations occasions the loss 
of almost a year, so that the number 1461 would be, in fact, nearer 
correct than 1460. 

4— c 



50 DATE OF EXODUS. 

The agreement of the Egyptians upon a central point of their 
country for astronomical determinations, as we, by general agree- 
ment, for example, reckon longitude from Greenwich observatory, 
does not imply that they did not have calculations based upon local 
observations for the rising of Sirius for the practical use of the 
celebrations of the festivals at a given place. In fact the existence 
of an average or middle epoch, generally agreed upon, implies the 
existence of different local observations from Pelusium to Syene, 
which might serve as a confirmation of or check upon the central 
calculation. Some think it more natural to interpret the date on this 
monument according to its local period, that of Elephantina for the 
rising of Sirius. This would make the year indicated to have been 
1454 instead of 1470 B. C. ; but in the record of such dates it seems 
more natural and as such more probable that the central calculation 
was observed of which opinion was Lepsius. 

Now, although I find for the departure, so called, of the Shep- 
herds, the same date as does Bunseu, yet he finds for that date a 
king named Tuthmosis, a man who was only two or three genera- 
tions out from Menes, while I find a man in the twentieth place in 
the list, counting Menes the first ; and, he is also, about the 18th or 
19th generation, reckoning 3 for a century (18 X 33^ = 600, and 
19 X 33| = 633^ years) ; for we find the departure of the Shep- 
herds, so called, to have taken place about 600 to 630 years after 
Menes. The name Thothma itself means given or' endowed by 
Thoth, and might, have been ascribed as an honorary title to one 
whose personal appellation was of another form. If Thothmes was 
understood as a personal appellation, it is queer we should have two 
brothers of that name in the second generation after Menes, i.e., 
Thothmes II., Ea-Aa-en Khepher, and Thothmes III, Ka — 
Men — Khepher, respectively. It is true the name Kameses was 
worn by brothers, but it appears also to have been understood as a 
distinguishing title, while the personal appellation was different. A 
king, it is true, may have worn the title Thothmes (Thoth-given, 
or Thoth-endowed), as well as that of Eameses (the high king, 
tall man or giant), and yet have been known in his daily life by a 
different name. From a mistake made by Bunsen in common with 
others Thothmes III. was 600 years earlier than they thought him to 
have been, in fact the Tuthmoses were such shadowy characters 
that no tomb of any king of that name has yat been discovered, 
while that of my Eameses II., who is eighth in the list after Apapus, 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 51 

the Great, as found by Champollion and Rosellini at BibanelMoluk 
was, in their opinion, little inferior in grandeur and beauty of 
architectonical finish to that of Sesostris the Great. Iu the ex- 
cavations made by Mr. Green in 1854, in which he found a good 
deal to confirm what has been said in the histories concerning the 
exploits of that Rameses, No. 28 of my list, he discovered upon the 
right side of the second pylon a legible inscription in which that 
king says: " That he has driven the barbarians out of Egypt with 
the sword," to which Bunsen adds by way of remark : " He must, 
therefore, have found them in Egypt." The hordes which had made 
the inroad into lower Egypt for pasturage, etc. are elsewhere called 
the Tamahu (white people from the north)? And in reference to 
the expulsion of the enemy he says : " 1 have made their land my 
own." Among the nations conquered by that monarch we read 
Aasen, Kheta, Ati, Karkamasa (Carchemish in Mesopotamia), 
Arahu, Tyra, Tuirsa and Sairtana (Tyrians and Sidonians) are 
designated as " People of the Sea," Gaikkuri ('Hakku, i.e., St. 
Jean d' 'Acre, which Rameses took before he laid siege to Tyre); 
Mashuash, i.e., Damascus, etc. 

The vast accomplishments ascribed to our Rameses II. required 
a considerably long reign, although on the monuments only his 
twelfth year has been discovered. Some have supposed that to 
him under the historic or honorary name of Thothmes III. is as- 
cribed the erection of several temples and the palace of Medinet 
Aboo. Rosellini remarks there is scarcely an ancient city in Egypt 
and Nubia, as far as the second cataract beyond Semneh, where re- 
mains of his edifices are not to be found. Among the rest is a temple 
he erected iu honor of his ancestor, the great Sesostris. It is plain, 
therefore, that my Runeses II. (No. 28) was not identical with 
Sesostris the Great (No. 20) nor yet with Tethmosis III., who is 
about No. 7. In the record of the nations conquered by him there 
are gone over about the same national designatio ns as under the 
name Thothmes III. Champollion and others understand the bearer 
of the latter name to be the same with Mares, which was another 
name for my Rameses II. 

Under none of these names, however, is the conquest of Ethiopia 
set down, which, according to Herodotus was the distinguishing and 
peculiar part of the great Sesostris among the kings of Egypt. 
The various historical lists and hypotheses ascribe to their Thothmes 
III. a length of reign all the way from 9 up to 48 years ; and if he 



52 bunsen's synchronisms. 

were the same with Mares or our Rameses II. the length of 39 years 
which Syncellus has given to his reign would not seem to be too long 
for him in which to accomplish all that has been ascribed to him. 
" The Israelites," says Bunsen, " with their 2,000,000 souls and 
their flocks an J with 600,000 men capable of bearing arms, were al- 
ready encamped in the country to tlie east of the Jordan and ex- 
tending northward from the Anion when Rameses III. (our II.) 
came to the throne. About the fourteenth year of this Pharaoh's 
reign Joshua passed over Jordan. This is the synchronism which 
we hope to establish," etc., (Egypt III. 211). If Bunsen had only 
agreed with Josephus that the Hyksos were the Israelites, and, had 
taken something near to the numbers Josephus has given us as of 
the Hyksos who left Egypt in the days of his Te thmoses, son of 
Misphragmuthoses, and went up and built Jerusalem, then a person 
would naturally conclude that his statement had an underground of 
truth and that in his accidentally showing his Tuthmosis III. to be 
identified with our Rameses II. he had Josephus as his authority. 
He made 215 years, as "a period of bondage," to intervene 
between the departure of the Shepherds in 1542 B. C. and the ex- 
odus of the Israelites under Moses in 13 27 B. C, which last exodus 
Josephus had to take place in about 1633 and Clement of Alexandria 
a little earlier. About all the authors, excepting Bunsen, made 
the departure of the Shepherds to have been identical with the ex- 
odus under Moses. I make the departure of the Shepherds for 
1512 B. C. ; and as in my understanding this would be the same 
with the historical exodus, then the approximate date of 1499 B. C, 
which I get for the exodus in connection with my research into the 
epochs of the patriarchs, might, possibly represent the passage of 
the Jordan by the Israelites under Joshua or the exodus from the 
transjordanic regions into the promised land in about forty years 
after the departure out of Egypt. There is certainly something in 
that forty years' period of unsettled life of the Israelites between 
their departure from Egypt and their entrance into the land of 
Canaan and I have thought it must refer to a detachment from the 
army of Sesostris whom he left stationed east of the Jordan to 
guard his rear on his progress eastward, who remained there settled 
in different places after his return to Egypt ; but who finally, in 
about a generation after his return, took it into their heads to pos- 
sess themselves of the west-Jordanic regions to the Mediterranean 
and finally succeeded in accomplishing this. 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 



53 



THE EGYPTIAN YEAR. 

The Egyptians divided their year into three seasons, consisting 

each of four equal mouths of thirty days each. To the end of the 
12th month they added on five supplemental days. These divisions 

were called the Green Season, the Harvest Season, and the Water 
Season. 

First Tetrameny. — The Green Season. 

1st of Green Season .... November. 

2nd " " " .... December. 

3rd " " " .... January. 

4th " " " .... February. 

Second Tetrameny. — The Harvest Season. 

1st of Harvest Season .... March. 

2nd " " " . . . . April. 

3d " " " . . . . May. 

4th " " " . . . . June. 

Third Tetrameny. — The Water Season. 

1st of Water Season .... July. 

2nd " " " .... August. 

3rd " " " .... September. 

4th " " " .... October. 



I. 


Thoth 


II. 


Phoophi 


III. 


Hathor 


IV. 


Choiak 


V. 


Toby 


VI. 


Mechir 


VII. 


Pharnenoth 


VIII. 


Pharmuthi 


IX. 


Pachdn 


X. 


Paoni 


XI. 


Epiphi 


XII. 


Mesori 



The names of the months have all reference to certain divinities ; 
it is not necessary here to go into an explanation of them. We 
find by the monuments that these have been the designations of 
months through all the pharaonic ages. Astronomers, however, 
conclude that the months must have been so designated at a period 
when the 1st of Thoth fell about the 25th of October. It being an 
easy matter for astronomers to calculate at what times this took 
place in ancient history, they have discovered that this was the 
case in 275, 1780 and 3285 B. C, and in so far as the adoption of 
this designation depends upon the above coincidence, they consider 
it certain (at least mathematically so) that it must have occurred 
in or about the year 3285 B. C. The Roman mode of reckoning 
dates, it is seen from the above, corresponded somewhat to the 
Egyptian. "Third month, third day, rising of Sothis," would 
answer, so far at least in the Roman expression, as " the 3rd before 
the Calends of October, while to an Egyptian it would indicate that 
he had 37 days yet to run (2+30+5) before the rising of Thoth or 
Sothis, on the first of November. 



54 SOTHIAC CTCLE. 

In regard to the commencement of the institution of the canicular 
or Sothiac period, we learn from Censorinus that the Egyptians had 
a Great Year, which they styled the Sothiac year, because on the 
first day of it the sun rose at the same moment as Sirius, Sothis, 
Canis, or the Dog-Star. He informs us that one of these Great 
Years commenced 100 years before his time. He wrote in the 
consulship of Antoninus Pius II., and Bruttius Prsesens, the year 
238 B. C. being the particular date. In that year 139 A. D. the 
Egyptian year really commenced with the 20th of July of the Julian 
year and in that year also did Sirius rise in central Egypt about 
seven o'clock, consequently only some few hours later than is 
assumed. In four years afterwards, therefore, this heliacal rising 
took place about a day after the beginning of the new year, and, 
thus, after 4X365 years, about a whole civil year later. Hence 
the Sothiac cycle turns out to be a period of 1460 years; in the 
1461st Egyptian year the 1st of Thoth again coincided with the first 
day of the Julian year; and consequently the year 132 2 B. C. is 
again the beginning of that cycle, which ended in A. D. 139. In 
that year the first of Thoth fell on the 19-20th of July. 

The summer solstice being the commencement of the inundation 
and consequently of the water season, was the great turning point 
of Egyptian life, and Sirius being the brightest of all the fixed 
Altars, it seems entirely natural that the coincidence of the heliacal 
rising: of that star with the solstice and the inundation should have 
been marked by the ancient Egyptians with special attention and 
regarded with especial favor. Corresponding to our experience or 
the observation of the times of ebb and flow of the tides on our 
coasts we perceive that the observation of a single life among the 
Egyptians was sufficient to show that, there was a departure from 
this coincidence at the rate of one day in every four years. But 
the recurrence of this remarkable coincidence at the end of each 
1460 years must have been to the Egyptian the most natural 
cycle. 

At an early period astronomers were struck by the fact that this 
star, owing to its position in relation to the latitude and longitude, 
must, from the precession of the equinoxes, have risen in the same 
proportion later, as the Julian year, which was about 11' 12" 
too long, ran more and more into the solar year. This was the 
only reason why the heliacal rising of Sirius, from 3300 B. C. 
down to a few centuries after Christ could always coincide in Egypt 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 55 

with the beginning of the same day (the 20th of July). It has been 
truly said that it was the guiding star of their history." 

In reference to the Egyptian year Diodorus says: " They do not 
regulate their months by the moon but by the sun, inasmuch as 
they have months of thirty days, at the end of every twelve of 
which they add on five days and a quarter, and so fill up the cycle 
of the year. They have no intercallary months nor do they sub- 
tract days as the Greeks do." 

An explanation of the passage in Herodotus relative to the sun's 
rising twice in the west is suggested by the Sothiac cycle. 

The priests told him that during the period from Menes to 
Sethos (the king who succeeded to the Ethiopian dynasty of three 
kings instituted by Sabaco) the sun had risen (a>aTsUa t ) four times 
in an extraordinary manner; that where it then set it had twice 
risen (ixavaredat) and where it then rose (avaTMn) it had twice set, 
without occasioning any alteration in Egypt, either as regards the 
products of the earth or river or in reference to disease or mortal- 
ity " (ii. 142). 

To deduce some chronological data from this passage many 
attempts were made of which Letronne tried to dispose by showing 
hem to be unphilological assumptions. The length of time here 
speeified from Menes to Sethos prevents us from suspecting that 
the astronomical phenomena spoken of by the priests had reference 
to the cosmical phenomena brought about by the precession of the 
equinoxes. It has been concluded, however, upon an unprejudiced 
consideration of the passage, that the priests meant to give Herodo- 
tus a chronological statement connected with celestial phenomena. 
His words would at first appear enigmatical and as if there might 
be a mistake in the former or the latter part of the sentence. For, 
it is plain, that if the sun set twice in the east it must also have 
arisen twice in the west, which makes not four times (rsT^axi?) 
but twice. The language of Herodotus is, however, as plain as it 
c:m be made to a Greek, and the case suggests to us a solution as 
striking as it is evident. 

For plain it must appear that during the Sothiac cycle the be- 
ginning of the year must gradually pass through all parts of the 
heavens and at the middle of it is at the exactly opposite point of 
that of the normal, solar year. The priests, therefore, doubtless 
meant to speak of the passage of the movable, solar year through 
the opposite points of the heavens, while Herodotus seems as surely 



56 HERODOTUS' ACCOUNT. 

to have understood them as meaning that the sun rose twice in the 
opposite side of the heavens, that is, what we understand as the 
west, and set twice on the other side, or that in which we under- 
stand him to rise. 

But the language of Herodotus is, as I have said, as plain as it 
can be made in the Greek and has reference in this case evidently 
to the Sothiac cycle; but not to the precessional, to which it is ap- 
plicable were it not that the period given by Herodotus from Menes 
to Sethos for the recurrence of the phenomena do not admit of the 
occurrence of the precessional cycle, which requires 25,827 years. 

It may, however, be regarded as a proof, derived from astro- 
nomical sources, of the position I take in regard to the identity of 
the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties, so called (when properly and 
fully expressed as to reigns and sum of years), with the list of 38 
rulers of Eratosthenes and with the old empire, so called, and the 
•proper date of Menes. For if to the 1076 years given to the said 
38 rulers of the list of Eratosthenes you add the numbers given in 
Africanus for the dynasties, beginning from the 21st inclusive, 
down to said Sethos who succeeds to the Ethiopian dynasty, first 
introduced by Sabacus, you will have in years, exactly to the year, 
the Sothiac cycle. (As to the following data see lists generally of 
the dynasties, including Africanus, Eusebius, Eratosthenes and 

Herodotus in loco.) 

Years. 

Limit of the old empire of Menes according to Eratosthenes' 

list 1076 

Largest number given to the 21st dynasty in Africanus' 130 

Largest number given to Africanus' 22nd dynasty 120 

Number given to Africanus' 23rd dynasty 89 

Africanus' 24th dynasty 6 

Africanus' 25th " (Ethiopian) 40 

The Sothiac cycle exact 1461 

Herodotus represents a king named Anysis, who was blind, as 
being the one who was supplanted by Sabacus, the Ethiopian ; as 
having gone into concealment during the Ethiopian supremacy for 
50 vears(40 in Africanus), as having taken his position at the head 
of the government again on the evacuation of the country by the 
Ethiopians, and then as having been succeeded by Sethos, the priest 
of Vulcan, who is the person here referred to chronologically. The 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 



57 



state of the case being such, then, it might be said without a great 
degree of error that Sethos immediately succeeded to the Ethiopian 
dynasty, for the implication is that the blind Anysis was a very 
aged man when he reascended the throne. 

Under the head of Petubastes, the first king of the 23rd dynasty, 
the entry is: "In his time the first Olympiad was celebrated." 
This date was 776 B. C, and for this man Africanus enters a reign 
of forty years. But, supposing for the purpose of the calculation, 
that this celebration took place in the 28th year of the reign of 
Petubastes then we get for the approximate date of Sethos, the 
priest king, who succeeded to the Ethiopian dynasty, 669 B. C, 
and for our Menes 2130 years B. C. The calculation is as fol- 
lows : — 

Tears. 

The sum of the years of the 23d dynasty 89 

— The time we suppose Petubastes had reigned before the institution of 
the first Olympiad 28 



The 24th dynasty 
The 5th " 



=61 

6 

40 



776 B.. C, date of 1st Olympiad -(-107 

= The approximate date of Sethos 669 B.C. 

-f The Sothiac cycle, which = 1461 yrs. 



=The approximate date of Menes 2130 B.C. 

In like manner we get the following dates as based upon the reckoning of 
Eratosthenes and Africanus. 



Approximate date of 1st year of 21st dynasty 

Approximate date of 1st year of the XXXVIIIth King of Eratosthenes 
ei tt it tt u u 37 tt tt 

(( u K (( tt t( gg tt tt 



34 
33 
32 
31 
30 
29 
28 
27 
26 
25 
24 
23 
22 



B. C. 

1054 
1117 
1134 
1141 
1184 
1239 
1262 
1288 
1304 
1364 
1375 
1387 
1394 
1412 
1420 
1432 
1454 
1460 



58 



DATES OF THE KIN'QS. 



Approximate date of 1 st year of 



(i it 
u tt 



it 



<( 



(( ft ft 

tt tt if 

if tt CI 

(( tf (( 

(( u tt 

ft tt tt 



tt ft 

tt tt 

tt tt 

ft tt 

tt tt 

ft ft 



ft 



tt ft 

ft tt 



ft (f 

ft tt 



ft ft 

tt ft 



ft ft 
ft tt 



21 

20 

19 

18 

17 

16 

15 

14 

13 

12 

11 

10 

9 

8 

7 

6 

5 

4 

3 

2 

1 



the King of Erastothenes 



1461 
1561 
1596 
1629 
1660 
1687 
1716 
1726 
1739 
1761 
1779 
1799 
1825 
1855 
1861 
1940 
1958 
1977 
2009 
20G8 
2130 



Lepsius begins his 21st dynasty in the year 1115 B. C, a differ- 
ence of 61 years from what I find the dates to be by reckoning 
back from the 25th to the 21st dynasty in Africanus as above. If, 
therefore, any one takes Lepsius' date as their basis of calculation 
they will have all these dates 61 years farther back, for example, 
for our Cheops (No. XXXIV.) we shall have the date 1300 in- 
stead of 1239 B. C. ; and for our first king, Menes, we shall have 
2191 instead of 2130 B.C. 

The numbers given by Eratosthenes here are only approximative ; 
but if they be about correct then my date, 1542, for the departure 
of the Shepherds from Egypt, is the 19th year of the reign of 
Sesostris, the Great. Even though it be unnecessary for you to fix 
upon any particular date whatever for the said departure of the 
Shepherds from Egypt, yet the information given in connection 
with all this subject will serve generally to illustrate the history, 
both Egyptian and Israelitish. 



The Apis Cycle. 

The Egyptians had a period of 25 years called the Apis cycle, 
which is found to have had a relation both to the solar and lunar 
years. Ideler (p. 182) has shown that there is not only a compu- 
tation of the mean anomaly of the sum from 25 to 25 years of the 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 59 

Philippine era, in the Tables of Ptolemy but that there are in the 
sixth book of the Almagest Tables for calculating the mean new 
and full moons, in which these arc progressive periods of that num- 
ber of years. Three hundred and nine mean months are only lh 
8' 38" less than 25 Egyptian years. It does, however, result that 
the Apis cycle of 25 years thus produced the same result, as re- 
gards the coincidence of the lunar phases with the same days of the 
Egyptian year as the Sothiac cycle for the recurrence of the 
heliacal rising of Sirius with the commencement of the civil year. 

A circumstance in relation to this, which has hitherto been little 
noticed, is that those tables of Ptolemy go on progressively, 1, 26, 
51, etc., exactly up to the 1476th year. This is thought to be con- 
nected with the fact, namely, that 59 Apis cycles make up the 
Sothiac cycle of 1460 years with 15 years over; 58 Apis cycles 
would have given 10 years less than the Sothiac cycle and besides 
it is concluded that orginally the two cycles must have begun to- 
gether. The phases of the moon would, in the 1450th year of the 
Sothiac cycle have been nearly three days (2|) behind that day 
at which it commenced and the renewal of the cycle presented the 
most simple means of making the Apis cycle begin again in such a 
way that people should easily recognize the beginning of the new 
course. 

This adjustment of the two systems, the lunar and solar, suggests 
that the original intention was, by means of these cycles, to com- 
bine the two; and that previously the lunar year, of 354 days, 
may have been used as the civil year. The notation of the 12 
moons, 291 days each, might exist equally well with it as with the 
year of 360 days.* 

The Phozxix Period. 

With the Sothiac cycle must also be connected the Phoenix pe- 
riod of the Eg3 r ptians. Herodotus was informed that it was a evele 
of 500 years, while the information obtained by Tacitus made it 
range, to a degree, uniformly with that cycle. Of course 487 
years is just the one-third of the Sothiac cycle, whose commence- 



* Two important point9 proved by Lepsius are the following: (1) That the festival of Apis 
coincided with that of the Nile, and that the lunar cycle carried out by it begins with the new 
moon nearest to the solstice , and consequently, to the inundation: (2) lie called attention to 
the circumstance of the Egyptian number of the great Cosmic year of 36,525 years depending 
upon the Apis period and its connection with the canicular cycle, it approximating to be a mul- 
tiple of the two (1461+25). 



60 ERATOSTHENES. 

merit implies that the rising of Sirius corresponded with the 1st of 
Thoth. This, however, is a displacement of four months ; for 
Thoth, according to his sign, begins 120 days after the ancient 
heliacal rising of Sirius. It was, therefore, only at the end of 487 
civil years, reckoned from the point of the proper notation of 
the months, that the first of Thoth corresponded with the rising 
of Sirius. This is susceptible of historical as well as astronomical 
explanation. Investigators have discovered, however, that the 
notation of months is more ancient than the institution of the 
Sothiac cycle by about 500 years, and that concurrent with it 
was the lunar cycle by Apis periods, perhaps originally with the 
view of correcting the year of 354 and 360 days ; twenty of these 
make 500 years or one Phoenix cycle. It is, therefore, seen that 
the lunar year may have been in use concurrently with the solar 
in the earliest times ; and that the Apis cycle was probably in- 
tended to keep those ; two kinds of years in as regular adjustment 
as possible. 

Catalogue of the 38 Theban Kings of Eratosthenes. 
Translation from the Greek. 

Syncellus, having given an enumeration of the first kings of the 
Egyptians, thus proceeds : — 

" Apollodorus, the chronicler, has written up another Egyptian 
Kingdom of the kings called Theban, who were in number 38 and 
embraced a period of 1,076 years. This kingdom took its begin- 
ning in the year of the world 2900 and had its end in the year of 
the world 3975. Concerning those kings they say Eratosthenes 
undertook the inquiry in the Egyptian memorials and made a trans- 
lation of them into the Greek language, according to the command 
of the king, as follows: — 

I. First Menes, a Thinite-Theban, who is also called 
Aionios, reigned 62 years, The year of the world was A. M. 
2900 (i.e., the commencement of the reign) 62 — 2900 

II. The second of the Thebans who reigned was Athotis, 

the son of Menes, for 59 years. This name is inter- A. M. 
preted, Ermogenes. The year of the world was 2963.59 — 2963 

III. The third king of the Theban Egyptians who reigned 
was Athotis, of the same name as the former, for 32 

years. The year of the world 3021 32—3021 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORT OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 61 

IV. The fourth king of the Thebans who reigned was 
Diabies (Miabies), son of Athotis, who reigned 19 

years; year of the world 3053 19—3053 

V. The fifth king of the Thebans who reigned, was Pem- 
phos, son of Athothous, who is Heraklides; for 18 

years ; year of the world 3072 18 — 3072 

VI. The sixth king, who ruled over the Theban Egyp- 
tians, unfought, indeed was Momcheiri, a Memphite, 
for 79 years; he is called Tesander Perissomeles 
(Tesander of the disproportioned limits). Year of the 

world 3090 79—3090 

VII. The seventh king of the Theban, Egyptians who 
resigned, was Stoikos, son of the last named, who is 
Heliothetos; for 6 years; year of the world 31 69 6 — 3169 

VIII. The eighth king of the Theban Egj'ptians, who 
reigned, was Gosormies, who is Aitesipantos (Sesor- 
tosis who is Hegesikratos), for 30 years; the year of 

the world was 3175 30—3175 

IX. The ninth king of the Theban Egyptians, who reigned, 
was Mares, son of the latter, who is Heliodoras : for 26 

years : year of the world 3205 , 26 — 3205 

X. The tenth king, who reigned over the Theban Egyp- 
tians, was Anonphis (An-Sonphis), who is Epikomas 

for 20 years : year of the world 3231 20—3231 

XI. The eleventh king, who reigned over the Theban Egyp- 
tians, was Sirios, who was son of Kores; but, as others 
have it, of Abaskantos : for 18 years ; year of the world 

3251 18—3251 

XII. The twelfth king, who ruled over the Theban Egyp- 
tians, was Chnoubos Gneuros, who is Chruses, son of 
Chrnsos: for 22 years: year of the world 3269 22—3269 

XIII. The thirteenth king, who reigned over the Theban 
Egyptians, was Rauosis, who is Archikratos : for 13 
years: year of the world 3291 13—3291 

XIV. The fourteenth king, who reigned over the Theban 
Egyptians, was Biures : for 10 years: jear of the world 

3304 .„ . 10—3304 

XV. The fifteenth king, who reigned over the Theban 
Egj'ptians, was Saophis, a reveller, but, according to 
some, a man of business: for 29 years :year of the world 

3314 29—3314 



62 ERATOSTHENES. 

XVI. The sixteenth king of the Thebans was Saophis II. : 

for 27 years : year of the world 3343 27 3343 

XVII. The seventeenth king of the Thebans was Moscheres 
(Megcheres) Heliodotos : for 31 years: year of the 

world 3370 31—3370 

XVIII. The eighteenth king of the Thebans was Mosthes 
(Mosthes): for 33 years: year of the world 3401.33 — 3401 

XIX. The nineteenth king of the Thebans was Pammes 
Achondes : for 35 years : year of the world 3434 35 — 3434 

XX. The twentieth king of the Thebans was Apappous, 
the Great. This man, as they say, was king about 100 

years : year of the world 3469 100 — 3469 

XXI. The twenty-first king of the Thebans was Eehesko- 
sokaras ; for one year : year of the world 3569 1 — 3569 

XXII. The twenty-second ruler of the Thebans was Nito- 
kris, a woman this time, instead of a man, who is Athena 
Nicephoras, for 6 years : year of the world happened to 

be 3570 6—3570 

XXIII. The twenty-third king of the Thebans was Mur- 
taiosAmmondotos: for 26 years : year of the world 3576.26 — 3576 

XXIV. The twenty-fourth king of the Thebans was Thu- 
osimares Kratistos, who is Helios: for twelve years: 

year of the world 3598 12—3598 

XXV. The twenty-fifth king of the Thebans was Seth- 
inilos : he increased his ancestral patrimon}' : for 8 years : 

year of the world 3610 8 — 3610 

XXVI. The twenty-sixth king of the Thebans was Semp- 
hroukrates, who is Hercules Harpokrates : for 18 years : 

year of the world 3618 18—3618 

XXVII. The twenty-seventh king of the Thebans was 
Chouthertauros, a tyrant: for 7 years: year of the 

world 3636 7—3636 

XXVIII. The twenty-eighth king of the Thebans was 
Meures Philoskoros: for twelve years: year of the 

world 3643 12—3643 

XXIX. The twenty-ninth king of the Thebans was Cho- 
maephtha Kosmos Philephnistos : for 11 years: year of 

the world 3655 11—3655 

XXX. The thirtieth king of the Thebans was Siokounios 
Ochoturannos : for sixty years : year of the world 3666.. 60 — 3666 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 63 

XXXI. The thirty-first king of the Thebans was Petea- 

thures : for 16 years : year of the world 3726 16—3726 

XXXII. The thirty-second king of the Thebans was Am- 
meuemes : for 26 years: year of the world 3742 26 — 3742 

XXXIII. The thirty-third king of the Thebans was Starn- 
menemes II. (Seth-Ammenenies) : for 23 years: year of 

the world 3768 23—3768 

XXXIV. The thirty- fourth king of the Thebans was Sis- 
tosichermes Herakles Krataios (Sesostris, the son of 
Hermes, the strong Hercules) : for 55 years: year of 

the world 3791 55—3791 

XXXV. The thirty-fifth king of the Thebans was Mares: 

for 43 years: the year of the world 3846 43_3S46 

XXXVI. The thirty-sixth king of the Thebans was Siphoas 
(Siphthah) [who also is Hermes] the son of Hephais- 

tos : for 5 years : year of the world 3889 5—3889 

XXXVII. The thirty-seventh king of the Thebans was 
Phrouoro or Neilos : for 19 years : year of the world 

3894 19—3894 

XXXVIII. The thirty-eighth king of the Thebans was 
Amouthartaios : for 63 years : year of the world 3913.. 63 — 3913 

To which last number, 3913, if you add 62 years you will have 
the year of the world, 3975, to which this continuous series belongs 
among those which follow, teacheth Syncellus." 

As to the fifty-three kings of Apollodarus in continuation of 
those of Eratosthenes. 

(Sync. Chronogr. p. 147, D.) 
Translation: 

" The government of the 38 kings, who, in Egypt, were called 
Theban, whose names Eratosthenes took from the sacred books at 
Thebes, there had an end. Having begun at the 2900th year of 
the world, 124 years after the confusion of tongues, it ceased in 
this the 3975th year of the world. 

But as to those in order of the remaining fifty-three Theban 
Kings, handed down by the same Apollodorus, I deem the names 
there thrown together as of no such extraordinary import as 



64 



DYNASTIES. 



that they should be placed before us, inasmuch as these names may 
not be authentic." 

Eratosthenes being regarded as a standard in Egyptian history; 
being indeed, as far as he goes (and especially by those who have 
no theory in regard to that history to restrain them, but are merely 
desirous to find the truth concerning it) regarded as the criterion, 
by which what we have purporting to be from Manetho and all 
other records we possess concerning that ancient nation, should be 
judged, I deemed it indispensable to submit to you the foregoing 
translation from the text as I found it. 

I will now submit to you in several tabulations my understand- 
in"- of the relation of the list of the 38 Kinffis of Eratosthenes, both 
to the old and new empire, compared with the list given us as from 
Manetho. First, it will come out as a person would think it is; 
afterwards as it really is. 

1. The first dynastry consisting of eight names as well as the 
18th dynasty up to and including the ninth or tenth name therein, 
as from Manetho (the latter being merely a substitutional repre- 
sentation of the former), are represented by the first five names 
in the list of Eratosthenes, which we reasonably suppose to be in 
genealogical order, and to stand for five successive generations. 
They stand as follows: — 

First Three Columns' System. 



!■ Menes. 
II. Athotis. 

III. Athotis. 

IV. Diabies or Mlabies. 
V. Pemphos. 



g 1. Menes 
Jj J 2. Athotis son. 
^ a 3. Kencheres son. 
"3 g 4. Ouenephes son. 
>.S 5. Ousaphaidos son. 
g g 6. Miebidos son. 
P£ 7. Semempsis son. 
0~ 8 Bienekes son. 



■< a 
g2 






1. Amos or Menes. 

2. Amenophis I. 
S. Aahmes. 

4. Tuthmosis II. 
; 5. Amenseth. 
■ 6. Misphra or Hatasu. 
;7. Tuthmosis III. 
3 8. Amenophis II. 



VI. Momcheiri. 9. Bocthos. 

VII. stoikos. 1 10. Kaiechos. 

VIII. Go80rnjie8. £ »; 11. Itinothris. 

IX. Mares. &§ 12. Tlas. 

X. Anouphis. g 3 13. SetheneB. 

XI. Sirios. £2 14. Chaires. 
XII. Khneubos Gneuros. qo 15. Nephercheret. 

XIII Rauosis. g 16. Sesochris. 
XIV. Biures. 17. Cheneres. 



XV. Saophis. 
XVI. Ssophis II. 
XVII. Megcheres. 
XVIII. Mosthes. 
XIX. Famines. 



18. Necheroph'es. 
I 19. Tosurthros. 
i: « 20. Tureis. 
£.§ 21. Mesochris. 
3 g 22. Boaphis. 
gz 23. Tosertasis. 
p< 24. Aches. 
ts 25. Sephouris. 
™ 26. Kerpheres. 



Eg 9. Tuthmosis IV. 

£^ 10. Ainenophi.s III, 

"" £ 11. Horus. 

£■- i 12. Amenophis IV. 

|g| 13. Nefruai'i. 

E» . §■ 14. Amt'iituimkh. 

eJ 15. Amenankhut. 

sS'S 16. Athotis. 



a ^ 



17. Schaigh. 

18. Athotis. 
*" £ 19. Armais 

b~ « 20. Rameses or Sethos. 
a g-| 21. Amenophis. 
£ . §■ 22. Taseser. 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 



65 



TT Apapns. 


1 28. 


Soris. 




XXI. Echeskos. 


Souphis. 




XXII. Nitokris. 


•fc £ 29. 


Souphis II. 






t!e 30. 


Meucherea. 






S g 31. 


Ratoisee. 






&£ 32. 


Bicheres. 






a< 33. 


Sebercberes. 






3 34. 


Thamphtliis. 




XXIII. Amurtaios. 


35. 


Ousercheres. 




XXIV. Thuosimarea. 


36 


Sephres. 




XXV. Sethinilos. 


1 37 


Nephercheres 




XXVI. Seiuphukrates. 


1 . 38 


Sisiris. 




XXVII. Chuther-Tauros 


b § 39 


Oheres. 




XXVIII. Meures. 


I 5 40. 


Kathouree. 




XXIX. ChonHephthah. 


pi 41. 


Menctaeres. 




XXX. Soikunis Ochtu 




Tatcheres. 




rannos. 


Ounos. 




XXXI. Petealhures. 


,d 






XXXII. Araenemea. 


44. 


Othoea. 




XXXIII. Stauienemes. 


a 45. 


Ptiios. 




XXXIV. Sistosicher- 


£ . 46. 


Methesouphia. 




mes. 


t, s 47. 


Phiops. 




XXXV. Mares. 


MenthesonphU. 




XXXVI. Siphoas. 


|| 49. 


Nitokris. 




XXXVII. Phrouoro or 

Nilos. 






XXXVIII. Amouthar- 


*o 






taios. 










60. 

I,. SI. 


Sesonchosia. 






Araenemea. 






* | 52. 


Sesostris. 






p ca 53. 


Lacheres. 






Jfg 54. 


Atneres. 






Amenemes. 






«^56. 


Schemiophria •' sister." 



o 


23. 


Sethos I. 


21. 


Siphthah. 


•"•w . 


25. 


VliM'li.'liir,. 


|2l 


26. 


Mernra. 


Ml 






Qn^ 






■2 












s 






rt 






^ 


27. 


Sethar. 


•S 


28. 


Rameaes II. 




29. 


Rameses III. 


B m 


30. 


Rameses IV. 


C 3 


31. 


Rameaes V. 


*"' a 


32. 


Rameaea VI. 




;;.;. 


Kameses \ II. 


«3y_, 


34. 


Rameses V 1 1 1 


R 


35. 


Rameses IX. 


Q 


36. 


Rameaes X. 


£ 


37. 


Rameaes XI. 


o 


S8. 


Rameses XII 



In this arrangement we have placed the list of Africanus in what 
would be at first sight supposed to be their natural order of 1st, 2d, 
3d, dynasties, etc., alongside of the names in the list of Eratosthenes 
and of those, on the other side, of the 18th, 19th and 20th dynas- 
ties, for which they stand, as restored by Lepsius. But it is 
plain, as a comparison of the three lists in this view shows, that 
what seems the natural order, that is, the order of the numbers, 
1, 2, 3, etc., in the list of Africanus, is not the chronological 
order. See, for example, the place of Nitokris, which is the same 
as Tasesar, in the first and third columns, No. 22 in each, while in 
the middle column, that of Africanus, it is No. 49. Also the name 
standing lor Sesostris the Great, which is No. 20, in the first and 
third colums, is No. 47 in the middle, that of Africanus. The 
chronological order, therefore, in the list of Africanus is not in the 
natural order of the numbers of the dynasties in that authority. 
Laying aside all the idea of foreign dynasties as connected with 
the dynastic names Elephantin, Herakliopolitan, etc., for it is 
certain that these were all the offsprings of the empire of Menes, 
the first and most natural conclusion we come to in the case is that 



5— c 



66 



DTNASTIES. 



some of the dynasties of Africanus, as set down in the middle col- 
umn, were contemporary. But as, from a view of the foregoing 
lists, the second dynasty of nine names which Africanus sets down 
as Thinite and the fifth consisting also of nine names which he 
enters as Elephantin, do not appear to be represented in the list of 
Eratosthenes, if then we first suppose that Eratosthenes' list is 
altogether the correct one misrepresenting as to no space, and on 
this ground exclude the 9 + 9=18 names from the list of Africanus, 
as it stands above, we shall have left in it 56 — 18=38 names, 
being the same number as that in Eratosthenes' list. This we do 
in the following tabulation and shall see how it comes out when 
compared with the others as before. 



Second Three Co?uwi?is' System. 



Bratosthene't List. 

I. Menes. 
II. Athotis. 

III. Athotis. 

IV. Diabies. 
V. Pemphos. 

VI. Momcheiri. 
VII. Stnikos. 
V1I1. Uosormies. 



Africanut' List. 

£ 1. Menes. 
•^ >. 2. Atbotis. 
= f 3. Kencheres. 
a 4. Ouenephes. 
■~q 5. Ousaphaidos. 
^ 6. Miebidos. 

7. Semempsis. 

8. Bienekes. 



IX. Mares. 9. Necherophes. 

X. Anouphis. -s 10. Tosorthros. 

XI. Sinos. f .11. Tureis. 

III. Khnubos 2 If 12. Mesochris. 

Uneuros. | 5 13. Souphis. 

XIII. Rauosis. SR 14. Toseratasis. 

XIV. Biures. ip 15. Aches. 

< IB. Sephouris. 
17. Kerpheres. 



XV. Saophis. 




18. 


Soris. 


XVI. Saphis II. 


— 


19. 


Soupnis. 


XVII. Megcheres. 




20. 


Souphis Ii 


XVIII. Mosthes. 


* : 


»S1. 


Mencherea 


XIX. Famines. 


3 ta o.> 


Katoises. 


XX. Apapus 


!u ' 


3 23. 


Bicheres. 


XXI. Echeskos. 


KO 2 - 1 


Sebercheres. 


XXII. Nitokris. 


3 


26. 


Thaniphthis. 


XXIII. Amurtaios. 








XXIV. Thuosimares. 








XXV. Sethinilos. 




26. 


Othoe6. 


XXVI. Semphukrates. 
XXVII. Chuther-Tauros 


-5 


27. 


Phios. 


. ^r 


28. 


Methosouphii. 


XXVIII. Meures. 


§ >>29. 


Phiops. 


XXIX. Chomaephthah. 




', :)o. 


Menthesouphis. 


XXX. Soikunios 


SI 


131. 


NitokriB. 


Ochturannos 


■3 Q 




XXXI. Peteathures. 


<3 






XXXII. Amenemes. 


a 


32. 


Sesonchosie. 


XXXIU. Staniencnies. 


« 


33. 


Amenemes. 


XXXIV. Sisto- 


S3 


34. 


Sesostris. 


sichermes. 


n 


35. 


Lacheres. 


XXXV. Mares. 


*DQ 


3G. 


Ameres. 


XXXVI. Sipuoas. 




37. 


Amenemes. 


XXXVII. Phrouoro 




38. 


Skhemiophris, 


XXVIII. Arnoutbar- 


'£ 




ter." 


taios. 


< 







List of 18th, 19th and 10t\ 
Dynasties restored* 

1. Amos or Menes. 

2. Amenophis I. 

3. Aahmes. 

4. Tuthmosis II. 

5. Amenseth. 

6. Hatasu or Misphra. 

7. Tuthmosis III. 

8. Amenophi3 II. 

9. Tuthmosis IV. 

10. AmenopbisIII. 

11. Orus. 

12. Amennphis IV. 

13. Nefruari. 

14. Amentuankh. 

15. Amenankbut. 

16. Atbotis. 



17. Schaigh. 

18. Athoiis. 

19. Armais. 

20. Rameses or Sethot. 

21. Amenophis or Pheron. 

22. Tasesar. 



13. Sethos I. 

24. Siphthah. 

25. Amenemseth. 

26. Mernra. 

27. Sethar. 

28. Rameses II. 

29. Rameses III. 

30. Rameses IV. 

31. Rameses V. 

32. Rameses VI. 

33. Rameses \ II. 

34. Rameses VIII. 

35. Kameses. IX. 

36. Rameses. X. 

37. Rameses. XI. 

38. Rameses. XII. 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. ()7 

Viewing, as before, the place of Queen Nitokris, which is Tases- 
ar, in this tabulation, which, as in the former case, is No. 22 in the 
first and third columns, but in the middle column in this second ar- 
rangement we find to be No. 31 ; and that of the great Sesostris, 
which in the first and third columns is No. 20, is now in the middle 
column No. 29, we find thus the list of African us, even after the ex- 
clusion of the second and fifth dynasties, does not present the 
names in their chronological order, and so after a brief interval 
shall proceed to another arrangement. 

In explanation of some of the names I may say that Menes, which 
is spelled in the hieroglyphics Mna or Mena has for one of its mean- 
ings a fortification, something established, settled, which is a mean- 
ing for the Heb. Misr. (Mitzr.), usually found in the plural or dual- 
form Mizraim. This last is a name of Egypt, in which it doubtless 
has reference to the two countries Upper and lower Egypt. Meni 
is also a name of the sun. Origen rebuked the Jews for the 
worship they gave to Meni and Selene, the sun and moon. The 
word Mne or Mene in Hebrew signifies to number. The Greek 
root Men, a month, also the moon and the God of the moon, 
the Egyptian Thoth. The root Men, then, is the root of our word 
moon, month as well as of number, properly num-er, or number, and 
num being men read backwards as in Hebrew, and generally in the 
ancient Egyptian. Doubtless the reason the root men signified to 
number was because the motions of the sun and moon were used to 
measure time. The Egyptian God, Meni, was the same as Horns, 
the sun. A month is the space of time measured by the sun or 
moon. From the same root is the Latin Manes, which were the 
Genii, according to Servius. The root Men having reference to 
the moon as well as to the moon God, Thoth, may be a reason why 
he himself was also called by some Thothmes as well as his son, a 
name which means given or endowed by Thoth. 

This same man or his son Thothmes was also named Chnebra, the 
golden watcher, that is, the sun. The form Chnebra, equals ch- 
nub-ra or ch-num-ra, the b and in being used for each other as in 
Nimrod or Nebrod, etc. The name Chnebra, then, is the name 
Menes and also Amenophis in disguise, the root Men is read back- 
wards as said above, the ch is prefixed to equalize the Greek sound 
of the Egyptian initial n, and ra, sun, is affixed. The form Chebron, 
which doubtless associated this man's name with Moses and the 
Hebrews, appears to be rather a mistranscription than a corrupt 



68 DTNASTIES. 

form of the word. Lepsius (Einl. p. 359 notes) cites a passage 
from the Alexandrian Chronicle in which the Pharaoh under whom 
Moses was brought up is called Khenebron. This is, doubtless, 
the same with the Khenephres of Artapanus. The n:ime on the 
monuments stands Ra-Neb-Peh. The Ta was sometimes pro- 
nounced last and the Egyptian ri at the beginning of a word sounded 
to the Greeks like gn : thus Nub or Num, the name of a diety and 
signifying gold, was pronounced Gnub or Chnub and so Chnubra 
would be easily transcribed by the Greeks Chnebron. The form 
for the name in Africanus is Chebros, in Josephus Chebron. As a 
matter of course we may conclude that other kings may have had 
Chnubra as a distinguishing title as well as Menes or Tethmosis. 
The Athotes of the first and second columns are seen in the Teth- 
moses of the third. 

In explanation of the proper chronological order of the kings in 
the lists of Africanus, as fromManetho, I may remark that Bunsen 
after considerable painstaking research bestowed upon the subject, 
found that Africanus' 2nd dynasty was contemporary with the 
oid, both attaining to a unity of empire in the 4th; and "the 
fifth dynasty of Elephantiu kings with the line of Imperial kings 
from a given starting point, n amely, the close of the 4th dynasty.' 
This is all right only we will find the succession of nine Elephantin 
kings were the Imperial kings after the close of the 4th dynasty, 
properly understood. He finds that, after the 1st clyna^y bad 
lasted 190 years under five consecutive kings, the reigning family 
became divided into two branches and that " Egypt was probably 
divided into two, the Upper and Lower Country. The Imperial or 
Memphite, called the 3rd dynasty, then reigned 224 years, the 
Thinite, called the 2nd, the same number, the former comprising 
nine the latter seveu rulers. At the end of 414 years, therefore, 
from Menes inclusive, the 4th dynasty reunited the whole empire 
under one sceptre." Bunsen was correct in regard to the contem- 
poraneity of the 2nd and 3rd dynasties, so called, of Africanus ; but 
incorrect in his supposition of the kingdom being divided into 
Upper and Lower Egypt ; for the 3rd dynasty here were the de 
facto kings of Egpyt for 9 reigns; the line of the 2nd dynasty was 
preserved in the records, as I suppose, only for genealogical pur- 
poses, the genealogy of Sesostris-Rameses, who came afterwards 
being traced back through that to Menes. However, without me 
necessarily now going further with Bunsen than in agreeing as to 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 69 

the 4th dynasty (as properly understood) carrying on the govern- 
ment of Egypt in succession to the 3rd I may remark that it is said 
the Tablet of Karnak traces genealogy back to Menes through the 
6th and 3rd dynasties (this last according to Africanus) and the 
Tablet of Abydos reaches the same goal through the 4th and 2nd 
dynasties. But there is a mistake here, for both these tablets were 
erected by the Rameses, whose genealogy must go back in the 
same line. The 4th dynasty, it is true, is connected with the 6th, 
so that the mention of the 4th for the 6th is not altogether a mis- 
take ; but it is most correct to mention the 6th as connected with 
the 2nd as you will afterwards see, for it is found that the tablet 
of Karnak contains immediately, after the kings of the 3rd dy- 
nasty," the shield of Pepi, who is variously called Apapus and 
Phiops (the latter being the fourth name in Africannus' 6th dy- 
nasty) and also Sesostris, JEgyptusand Rameses the Great. 

The whole discovery anyhow goes to show us that there was a 
branching out of the imperial family at the fifth name in Eratos- 
thenes' list, which isalso the 5th generation in descent from Menes. 
For the Pemphos, which is the fifth in Eratosthenes is P-Ameno- 
phis, the second of the name in my list and must be of the fifth 
generation from Menes since he is 8th in the succession. From 
this point Eratosthenes carries on the line in the Memphite branch 
of the family of Menes from the 1st through the 3rd dynasty, while 
Africanus gives an exhibit of both of the lines back to Menes, that 
is, through the 3rd and 2nd dynasties. 

But recognizing the 1st and 3d dynasties, so called, which are al- 
lowed to have constituted the monarchical succession, these con- 
sisted of a succession of 17 names in the lists of Africanus, but 
ended with the XlVth of Eratosthenes' list : while I find in my own 
list that 16 names is the number. Consequently, in Eratosthenes' list 
there are five names (XV-X1X) between the XlVth name and the 
XXth, that is, Apapus, whose scutcheon, on the Tablet of Karnak, 
stands directly after those of the 3rd dynasty. But, this Apapus 
is not the first name of the 6th dynasty but the fourth, which 
makes him No. 21, in the regular succession in the list of Afri- 
canus, while he is No. XX in the list of Eratosthenes as well as No. 
20 in mine. 

Here, then, between the last of the 3d dynasty, No. XIV in Era- 
tosthenes, No. 17 in Africanus and No. 16 of my regular list and 
the name of Apapus or Rameses, the Great, we have to account for 



70 DYNASTIES. 

the names wanting and show satisfactorily who they were: If we 
go according to Eratosthenes we have Ave names to consider; if ac- 
cording to Africanus two, while my regular list requires three ( 16+ 
3=19), and without going farther I may say that these three I find 
in the first three mimes of the 6th dynasty of African us, which im- 
mediately precede Apapus, the great, there called Phiops. The 
circumstances of the case in regard to those dynasties in relation to 
each other suggest the great probability of the five names in Era- 
tosthenes as pertaining to Africanus' 4th dynasty being of a line 
of men parallel and contemporary with the kings of the 6th and 
which gave birth in the male line to the succeeding dynasty. 

But the first three of that 6th dynasty of Africanus, viz., Othoes, 
Phios, Methosouphis, are as fairly supposable to answer respec- 
tively to Schaigh, Armais and a queen Athotis, a son and daughter 
of queen Athotis and the priest, Aedhes (Othoes) that is Schaigh. 
This will obtain fuller explanation farther on and also how that those 
five names mentioned as in Eratosthenes and pertaining to Afri- 
canus' 4th dynasty run parallel and contemporary with the ruling 
kings of the 6th dynasty, whose names, as derived from the monu- 
ments appear in my list. It is seen, therefore, that in my regular 
list the three names to be supplied after the 16th and before Ba- 
rneses, the great, are those of his father, who formed a new dynasty 
and those of an elder sister and a brother. In the following I give 
the list of the actual kings of Egypt as tabulated from Africanus; 
along side of which I will place their prototypes of the 18th, 19th 
and 20th dynasties restored : — 



■ — i : 


1. 


Menes. 


1. Amosis or Menes. 


<2 


2. 


Athotis. 


2. Amenophis. 


O 4J 


3. 


Kenkenes. 


3. Tethraosis. 


0D 


4. 


Ouenephes. 


4. Aahmes. 


§ 2 


5. 


Ousaphaldos. 


6. Amenseth. 


° 2 


6. 


Miebidos. 


6. Misphra or Hatasu. 


fig 


7. 


Semempsis. 


7. Tethmosis. 


03 

91 


8. 


Bienekes. 


8. Amenophis. 


_ 


9. 


Necherophes. 


9. Tethmosis. 


d 

S3 


10. 


Tosorthros. 


10. Amenophis. 


"C 


11. 


Tureis. 


11. Orus. 




12. 


Mesochris. 


12. Amenophis. 


° o 


13. 


Souphis. 


13. Nefruari. 




14. 


Tosortasis. 


14. Amentuankh. 


03 T3 


15. 


Aches. 


15. Amenankhut. 




16. 


Sephouris. 


16. Athotis. 


17. 


Kerpheres. 





CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 71 

*oa 18. Othoes. 

5 J -0 . 19. Phios. 



17. Schaigh. 

18. Athotis. 



£,.S 3 g g, 20 - Methosonphis. 19. Arraais. 

° •- o * I 21 " Phiops - 20 - Rameses or Sethos. 

M^SS"C 22, MenthesoupMs. 21. Amenophis. 

£"•)««« 23. Nitokris. 22. Tasesar. 

g 24. Ousercheres. 23. Sethos. 

§ 25. Sephres. 24. Siphthah. 

r J 26 - Nephercheres. 25. Amenemses. 

«3 a, 27. Sisiris. 2(5. Merura. 

28. Cheres. 27. Sethar. 

29. Rathoures. 28. Rameses II. 
J.3 30. Mencheres. 29. Rameses III. 

31. Tatcheres. 30. Rameses IV. 

32. Onnos. 31. Rameses V. 



o 

■ J3 



.e 1 



1 1 



a 



33. Sesonchosis. 32. Rameses VI. 

34. Amenemes. 33. Rameses VII. 

35. Sesostris. 34. Rameses VIII. 



qoS 36. Lacheres. 35. Rameses IX. 



37. Ameres. 36. Rameses X. 

38. Amenemes. 37. Rameses XI. 

39. Skhemiophris 'sister.' 38. Rameses XII. 

Sethos and Sesar-Cheres, Nos. 23 and 24, as above, pertain, of 
course, to the same man, who appears in the history and legend as son 
of Amenophis, and after whom, according to Lepsius, two sons of 
Tasesar succeed each other, the first of whom or his father must 
have begun the new dynasty. 

According to my tabulation of the successive dynasties you will 
notice the old 21st is in the order of the 6th ; the 30th, the 15th; 
the Grecian, the 17th : and the Roman, the 18th. 

These two foregoing lists giving the chronoiogical line of the 
rulers of Egypt, for the old empire of Menes have been arrived at 
by me after considerable labor in investigation and comparison, as 
you have not failed to notice thus far in your progress, in which I 
have conducted you along step by step. And, in retrospect, you 
will see I have first placed the particular dynasties of Africanus in 
the regular order of their numbers 1, 2, 3, etc., in juxtaposition 
with the List of Eratosthenes, and as a result on observation found 
that the particular sections of the List of Eratosthenes which would 
be thought from the nature of the case to correspond to the dynas- 
ties of Africanus in their order were far from corresponding. I 
then made a new tabulation, my " 2nd 3 columns' system," in which 
I put in juxtaposition with the List of Eratosthenes the dynasties of 
Africanus in order down to the 12th inclusive, minus the 2d Thiuite 



72 DYNASTIES. 

and the 5th Elephantia dynasties. This done my observation 
showed me at once that the particular names in each of the three 
columns, which should correspond or about correspond as to their 
numbers in the lists were so very far from corresponding that this 
could not possibly be the chronological order of the reigns in Af ri- 
canus' lists, although the number left in his list here was 38, the ex- 
act number in that of Eratosthenes. With these two systems I 
compared my regular list in chronological order of the actual rulers 
of Egypt, corresponding in number to the list of Eratosthenes and 
restored from the monuments on the basis and arrangement of 
Lepsius, with which I did not find the list of Africanus yet to agree 
any more than it did with the other. I then proceeded to a third 
arrangement putting into juxtaposition with my own list of rulers 
in their chronological order the list of Africanus arranged in order 
as follows: The 1st, 3d, 6th, 5th and 12th dynasties, so called. 
This I found to be the chronological order of the rulers in Africanus, 
as you will discover to your satisfaction when you shall have pro- 
ceeded far enough in the explanation of the steps in the investiga- 
tion. I will say here that the reason of the apparent anomaly of 
the 5th succeeding to the 6th dynasty is that the 4th dynasty being 
but an expansion of the 6th, so called, the 4th and 6th are contem- 
porary lines, for a few successions, and so the 5th dynasty is really 
a continuation of the 4th and the apparent anomaly is accounted for. 
The above three tabulations will greatly assist the reader in com- 
ing to a proper conception of a subject which language, even in 
great volume, without the help of such illustrations so often tends 
to obscure. Diodorus makes iEgyptus to be the 17th or 18th in 
descent from Menes, I think his mind being, that the two being in- 
cluded iEgyptus was the 18th, so that by him also the 1st and 
3rd dynasties are shown to connect directly with the 6th, all of 
Africanus, and the 19th or 18th place seems the place proper of 
Apapus, Phiops or Rameses I., which names all signify the same 
person, onlj' that here this name is shoved forward two places, first 
by that of an elder sister, Athotis, after the name of her mother 
and then by that of his brother, Armais, called in Africanus Phios, 
No. 19 of the left-hand column of my 2 columns' list, just preceding. 
I will say here that Methosouphis, No. 20 of that same left-hand 
column, is a female name and stands for Queen Athotis, No. 18 of 
the right-hand column on the same page. This name properly 
belongs to the preceding place; for Phios appears to be Phiops, as 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 73 

Armais is Rameses ; that is, the same elements stand for them 
respectively in the original Egyptian ; and the name Armais in all 
the proper lists comes in next place before Rameses-Sesostris. 
Some transcriber, therefore, we may suppose, has exchanged the 
places of these two names. 

Syncellus has in his Laterculus, in the 17th place, reckoning from 
Menes inclusive, the name Rameses, which is the first time that 
name occurs in his list; in the 18th place he has Ramessomenes; 
in the 19th Ousimares and in the 20th R-.imesseseos (i.e., Ra- 
meses-Sethos) ; and so for a few places more (or until such time 
as he begins to support his theory of Shepherd Kings), he has va- 
riations of the name Rameses. The name I give as Schaiffh is en- 
tered in most lists as Rameses, i.e., Raam-Schaigh, but from what 
I discovered chiefly arising from the researches of Lepsius into the 
genealogy I concluded the word Raam was only prefixed to the 
name after his son Sethos, i.e., Schaigh had performed his won- 
derful exploits, and so I made the Sethos-dair my Rameses 1st. 

The form Ramessomenes, No. 18 of Syncellus, is doubtless a 
female name standing for my Queen Athotes II., while Ousimares 
( 6 — Si — mares) "the ship of the sea," or "ship-master," as 
applied to the name of a man, would stand for Armais,* whom 
the Greeks called Danaus, and who colonized Greece. 

The name of the great Sesostris may be compared to a tower 
toward which loolieth, or a pivot round which turneth the whole 
history of ancient Egypt. In dealing with the history of that 
country much has necessarily to be said about him in order to 
elucidate the subject. But the few names I have here specified in 
relation to him would, if anything, indicate that those names from 
the 17th to the 20th place inclusive, were but of members of the 
same family, whose reigns some might think to have been all 
included, at least chronologically, in that of the 20th ; for Ramses 
the Great was born before his father ascended the throne, which 
was not till after the death of Queen Athotis I., his mother; and 
he himself is entered for a very long reign, by Eratosthenes under 
the name of Apapus for 100 years ; by Eusebius for 68, and by 
others for 66, which last doubtless is not far from correct. His 
brother Armais, whose name immediately precedes his, acted either 

* Armais = Si — mares, with 6 = 00, the Greek and Egyptian definite article prefixed. 
Of the few Egyptian colonies planted in foreign countries in the reign of the great Sesostris 
Greece received her share. Danaus = Da — Naus, the ship, or the ship captain. 



74 SESOSTRIS. 

as an independent king or as his regent over Egypt, while he was 
absent on his Asiatic and European expeditions, which lasted for a 
good many years. It might, perhaps, be more correct to say that 
Armais, an elder brother, occupied the throne in his own right, and 
that his younger brother, on his return flushed with victory, was 
not content to abide his proper time, but took forcible possession 
of the throne and compelled his elder brother to leave the country. 
This would be at least a more probable supposition than that the 
stories related about Armais in relation to his brother were true; 
and still this I have mooted is only a supposition. For, on the 
contrary, it might be considered a more probable supposition that 
Sesostris, having conquered Greece after he had overrun Asia-Minor, 
planted a large colony or several large colonies of Egyptians in 
that country and left his younger brother, Danaus, there as his 
viceroy or as independent king of the country. We are here 
speaking of a very early historic age, viz. : the 16th century B. 0. 
The tradition of the Greeks is, however, that Danaus planted an 
Egyptian colony or Egyptian colonies in their country, having been 
expatriated as well as dethroned by his brother Sesostris. 

It would seem, that if, as indicated in the list of Africanus, 
Amenophis II. or his son began a new dynasty under the name of 
Memphite, as distinguished from Thinite or Theban, this dynasty 
must have ended with the 16th name of our list; for the priest 
Schaigh, granting the deduction of Prof. Lepsius to be correct, 
is entered as a king of Egypt, which it is supposed he did not 
become until the demise of his wife, Queen Athotis. Now, this 
man, tracing back to Menes in the male line through the 2d 
dynasty, so-called, would begin in his person a new dynasty, that 
is simply, a dynasty descended from another son of Amenophis II. 
than that one through whom descended the 3rd dynasty so-ealled. 
The general supposition that he came to the throne in right of his 
wife is reasonable, but it is more probable that he was generally 
accepted after his wife's death to replace her, that he having become 
acquainted during her life with all the governmental administrative 
affairs was reasonably supposed most competent to fill her place 
after her death; and, that, on his demise his children were looked 
upon as next heirs to the throne. 

Momcheiri " the Memphite," the Vlth King of the list of Era- 
tosthenes, is Tethmosis, No. 9 of my list, from whose son Am- 
enophis III., descended, both the 2nd and 3rd dynasties, the last 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 75 

named being the actual Kings. The fact that Momcheiri, the Mem- 
phite, attained to the throne " without having fought for it," as 
according to Eratosthenes, shows that he was one who was under- 
stood as havinga right to the position. The expression " unfought" 
is not without its meaning, and such is its signification in this place. 
He is also called " of the disproportioned limbs." But the Tablet 
of Abydos tracing back the ancestor of the great Rameses through 
the 2nd dynasty, so called, I will here connect that ancestor with 
Menes, giving you each step in the male descent, as follows: — 

1. Menes. 

2. Athotis son of. 

3. Kcukenes son of. 

4. Ouenephes son of. 

5. Ousaphaidos son of. 

6. Miebidos son of. 

7. Semempsis son of. 

8. Bienekes son of. 

9. Boethos=Tethmosis IV. 

10. Kaiechos=Amenophis III. 

11. Binothris. 

12. This. 

13. Sethenes. 

14. Chaires. 

15. Nephercheres. 

16. Sesochris. 

17. Cheneres=Schaigh. 

This will show you, first, that the descent is not split up in such 
an artificial way as would appear from the dynasties in Africanus ; 
for although, for example, all those 17 names belong to the list 
here given still those which belong to the 2d dynasty, so called, 
aside from the actual monarchy are only 6 in number instead of 9, 
for Amenophis who was the same with Kaiechos, was king as was 
also Cheneres, who was the same with Schaigh, his seventh descend- 
ant. The lists in Africanus before his 18th dynasty, appear to me 
to have been made somewhat in the artificial way in which a tailor 
makes a coat ; but after he has begun his 18th dynasty down to his 
21st, the whole thing appears fragmentary, nothing complete, 
nothing finished, the object evidently being the obscuration of the 
subject. 



76 SECOND DYNASTY. 

Under the head of his 2d dynasty he gives us the important infor- 
mation that in the time of Boethos, our Tuthmosis IV., " there 
occurred a remarkable chasm in the earth at Bubastis." Would 
this have been in accommodation to the name he had given him, 
Boethos, i.e., B3 7 thos, i.e., Abyss? Or, would Tuthmosis IV. have 
been called Bythos on account of that occurrence? He also says 
that "in the time of Kaiechos," our Amenophis III., "the Bull 
Apis, at Memphis, and Mnevis, at Heliopolis; as well as the Men- 
desian goat were constituted gods." Would this be the reason the 
name Kaiechos was applied to our Amenophis (Amun-Saophis)? 
Now, the ruling house of the descendants of Amenophis III. 
being called Memphite does not imply that the seat of the ad- 
ministration did not continue to be at Thebes, for there is scarcely 
any doubt that this continued to be the seat of government of the 
monarchy. I take it the term Memphite was put in there by some 
historian simply as a variation of the subject or perhaps because 
Tuthmosis IV., who is said to have erected the Sphinx near Mem- 
phis, may have have had his residence in that city before he became 
king. 

But you will inquire why we understand Cheneres, No. 17 of our 
last list, to be identical with the priest Schai^h. In explanation 
allow me to say, first, that it is a variation of the same name ; for, 
in the Gaelic, the clan Aedh is the clan Schaigh or Seth, and also 
the clan Chathan, prouounced Chaun, and Chathanair, pronounced 
Chonari. The root of Cheneres, as here, is Chener or Chenre 
and is our name Henry, which in the Gaelic is Chathanair or Chat- 
hanri, or Chathair, or Chathri, which last is our name Harry. And 
so Mac Aedh or Mac Aedban equals Mac Shaigh or Mac Shaighan, 
translatable respectively " son of Jack "and "son of John ;" as 
also Mackay and McCon. The name Sesochris, as above, No. 16, 
next before Cheneres, is Seth-Cheres. This man is said by 
Af ricanus to have been five cubits and three spans high, which left 
him to have been over ten feet. 

Secondly, the name Cheneres is understood for the father of 
Rameses the Great, from the fact of its occupying the 17th place 
in the list, which is the place given by Africanus to Othoes (Aedh) 
the first of his sixth dynasty, (which is shown to connect here di- 
rectly with the 2nd dynasty so called, without the intervention of 
any 4th dynasty) ; and is the place which I have found for him 
from my independent researches carried out practically upon the 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 77 

basis of Lepsius, deductions. You have, therefore, Schaigh that is 
Cheneres, that is Othoes, that is, Aedh, occupying the throne and 
then his three children after him in succession occupying it for 100 
years or less. These were, noticing them in connection with the 
6th dynasty Athotis or Methosouphis, proper place No. 18 ; Armais 
or Phios, No. 19; and Rameses-Sesostris or Phiops, No. 20. 

You can now understand more clearly how that the first 
Ramesside house, according to the Tablet of Abydos, traces back 
its genealogy to Mencs through the 2nd dynasty, while the second 
house of the Ramessides traces it back through the 3rd dynasty, so 
called, that is, they both trace back to Menes through Amenophis 
III. the common ancestor of the parallel and contemporary 3rd and 
2nd dynasties, so called. 

To his 18th dynasty Africanus gives 16 names, Eusebins 14 and 
in Josophns I count for it 18 or 19 names. 

Now, although the father of Rameses, the Great, is in most lists 
entered as Rameses, still I deemed it better and tending much more 
to clearness of subject to enter him by his monumental name Ai, 
according to Champollion Schai, of which a full form is Schaigh, 
a variant of the root Scheth in Palai-Scheth ( Philistine) from whom 
the local name Pelusium, called also Avaris or city of the Hebrews. 
Thus Rameses, in the old language, equals Raamschaigh, meaning 
chief King, tall man, Sun-born. 

It is easily supposable that counter or rival lines of Kings might 
have sprung up from the royal stock, existent at Elephantina, 
Memphis or elsewhere; but there could, I think, be rivalry to the 
established monarchy, situated at Thebes, only in pretension; 
the regular establishment putting contemporary dynasties , de facto 
out of the question. But of one of the branches from the stock of 
Menes, going back through the old 2nd dynasty to the house of 
This or Abydos, was the priest-King, ancestor of the Rameses. 

Now, Tuthmosis III. is seventh or eighth ruler after Menes, al- 
though he he only the third in genealogical succession from him, 
and it might be thought to appear from the tradition quoted by 
Josephus as from Manetho, that for several reigns before his there 
had existed trouble with a contending dynasty called variously 
Shepherds or Herakleopolitan, or perhaps Elephantiu. This 
trouble, forsooth, ended with the departure of the troublesome 
pastors in the days of this Tuthmosis, whose father's euphonius 
name is put down in our tradition as Misphragmuthosis and the re- 



78 HERAKLEIDES. 

nowned departure of those pastors must needs have been contem- 
poraneous with the Exodus of the Israelites under their celebrated 
legislator Moses. It is, indeed, fortunate for chronologers and for 
the world that our Scriptural Moses did not have the prefix Tuth 
to his name, otherwise there might be a confounding of the two 
great men, Tuthmosis and Moses, and the departure of the Shep- 
herds from Egypt with the Exodus therefrom of the Israelites. 
What prevents us from supposing, which would not necessarily be 
concluding, that those contending dynasts about whom there has 
been so much noise, may have also sprung from a son of the 
founder of the monarchy? Eratosthenes calls his fifth king 
Pemphos (AmenophisJ also Heraklides, from whose descendants 
since he was succeeded by Momcheiri, the Memphite, it is most 
probable arose the name Herakleopolitan. All those stock of 
Menes were doubtless originally of the Asiatic shepherd or the 
Ethiopic priest-pastor kind. 

It so happens that a name which has been understood by some 
as for Sesostris the Great falls under the same number 34, in the 
first and second columns. Hitherto or before Prof. Lepsuis made 
and published his researches, there was a good deal of difficulty in 
determining as to who the great Sesostris was. This arose, I 
think, largely from their making Sethos the Great, to have been a 
different person from the first Rameses, the fact being that both 
names referred to the same man. Thus divided, as he found the 
names, Bunsen decided, on the whole, that Sethos was the great 
hero. This Sethos, No. 20 of our right-hand column, also called 
Rameses I., is the man who, by Diodorus and Josephus, was called 
^Egyptus, the man after whose name, ^Egj'ptus, that country was 
as now designated, and who was aslo called the Great Sesostris and 
the Great Rameses. Tracing back through the second dynasty 
through Pemphos (Amenophis III.) or Herakleides, No. V. of 
Eratosthenes, we find the first house of the Ramessides must needs 
have been Herakleopolitan, although they have been understood by 
some to have been Phoenician Shepherds: and they were also the 
builders of the pyramids as the 5th dynasty. 

Those who were satisfied in their minds from the study they had 
given to the subject in the authorities they possessed thereon, 
that there had been a Middle or Hyksos empire established in 
Egypt for 1000 years more or less, found reason from the data 
they had to conclude for themselves that there had been two great 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 79 

heroes, one being of the Old Empire, before the Hyksos period, and 
one of the New Empire after that period, who were both recog- 
nized by the name of Sesostris. This iEgyptus, however, to 
whom we have now referred, was the supereminent Sesostris to 
whom the Egyptian history points back and was also their Rameses 
the Great. Thus far I have pointed out how that the man they 
call Sesostris was their Sethos the 1st, and also, their Rameses the 
1st, and I will now add that he was the same with the Rameses I[. 
of many of their old lists, who is said to have reigned 66 years. 

The next remarkable hero in our list is that one whom the old 
lists have usually entered as Rameses III., but who, in my list, is 
entered as Rameses II. He is 28th of my list, column 3, being 
the eighth successor of Rameses I., corresponding to that Mares 
in Eratosthenes' list, whom Diodorus specified as being " 12th after 
.iEgyptus." It is not impossible he may have been 12th successor 
on the throne, but he could not have been more than 8th in descent 
from iEgyptus, who is that one who is called, by Eratosthenes, 
" Apappus, the Great." This second Rameses, of my list, to 
whom some have mistakenly ascribed the capture of Old Tyre, 
was far enough removed from the first Rameses to be called a second 
Sesostris ; he has not, however, ever attained to that honor, for he 
has not by any historian been mistaken for Sesostris the Great. 

Now, Prof. Lepsius thought he had good proof from the monu- 
ments that the five immediate successors of Rameses II. were his 
sons. If such were the case these would bein my list Rameses III., 
IV., V., VI., VII. ; Rameses VIII., according to Lepsius' hypothesis, 
being grandson of Rameses II., by his son Rameses VI., which last 
he makes to be the Rhampsinitus of Herodotus, the predecesor 
of Cheops, the builder of the great pyramid. It appears from 
this that the brother of Rhampsinitus intervened between him and 
Cheops. In one authority I have seen the number of brothers who 
succeeded to Rameses II. as their father is given at four. But the 
succession of four or five brothers to each other on the throne of 
any country, a position in which the occupant is ordinarily sup. 
posed to live out the term of bis natural life, is such a thing as I 
cannot recall an instance of in history. Now, there are two cir- 
cumstances to prove that this story of the succession to each other 
of four or five brothers is not founded on truth. In the first place 
my last two columns' tabulation shows our Rameses II. to be the 6th 
King of the old 5th dynasty and in that dynasty there were just 9 



80 DYNASTIES. 

Kings, so that only three of his sons at the most, viz., Rameses III. > 
IV., and V. could succeed him before the incoming of the new 
dynasty, the old 12th, in the person of Amenehmesl. of Eratosthenes, 
the Sesonchosis of Africanus and the Rameses VI., of my tabulation. 
According to the tabulation of Africanus' 5th dynasty Rathoures, 
No. 29, would stand for my Rameses II., No. 28, next to whom 
his son, Mencheres, i. e., Menophres or Amenophis, is No. 30, 
and then Tatcheres and Onos, Nos. 31 and 32 respectively; so 
that in this left-hand column of my two-columns' arrangement, 
No. 33 begins the old 12th dynasty and is my Rameses Vlth, No. 
32 of my list, in the right-hand column. The point here is to 
make plain that neither in Africanus nor in Eratosthenes did more 
than three names succeed Rameses II. upon the throne before the 
introduction of the 12th dynasty, which leaves the hypothesis 
concerning five sons, or even four sous of Rameses II. succeeding 
each other after their father on the throne to fall to the ground. 
According to the reckoning of Eratosthenes his Mures No. XXVIII., 
that is, our Rameses II., and his three successors reigned 99 years, 
which would make nearly fifty years each for two generations. 

If, however, we could suppose Manetho or Eratosthenes or both 
to have understood for our Rameses II., Sethos, the apparent 
chief of the old 5th dynasty, who succeeded queen Tasesar, but is 
entered as a son of Amenophis, which doubtless he was, they 
perhaps not understanding it so, then we find the aggregate of the 
reigns of himself and his four successors is, on the reckoning ot Era- 
tosthenes, 71years, that is, 71 years for the five immediate successors 
of Queen Nitokris. If any one wishes to consider this seemingly 
probable, I will say the name presents no difficulty, for Sethos is but 
a short form of Rameses, as seen above, Rameses I. having been first 
called Sethos. I will say here, however, that I would not understand 
either the No. 23 or the No. 28 of my list as the Rameses who cap- 
tured old Tyre and did the mighty acts put to the credit, by the his- 
torians generally, of their Rameses III.; but I would understand my 
Rameses VII., corresponding to Stamenemes,No. XXXIII of Eratos- 
thenes and to Amenemes, the immediate predecessor of him called 
Sesostris, No. 3, of Africanus' 12th dynasty, to have been that 
Rameses who conquered Old Tyre and Phoenicia. The time my 
reckoning gives for the first year of our No. 33, viz., 1262 B. C, 
may be concluded as definitely supporting this position. Bunseu's 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 81 

Synchronisms make his Rameses III. to have captured Old Tyre in 
1287 B. C, which would be the next year after his ascent to power, 
according to my calculation, of the first King of the 12th dynasty. 

Speaking in relation to the 20th dynasty of Africanns, as restored 
by Lepsius, Bunsen says: " In the case of the latter kings we are 
still unable to settle the genealogy ; their order of succession is, for 
the most part, established by the Apis inscriptions, which state the 
name of each king in whose reign a sacred bull was born or died. 
They have also recorded an important historical fact, namely, that 
the Ramesside family was overthrown by Herhor, high priest of 
Amnion, chief of the palace, and of the army, who, after the death 
of Rameses XII. takes the title of king of the two lands." " Con- 
sidering with Lepsius one of the Ramessides (Ra-Mama-Miamuu) 
to be a later variant of Hikma Miamun, that is of Rameses III., we 
have exactly twelve kings Setnekht (Mernra) the founder of the 
dynasty and eleven Ramessides; otherwise we must take 12 as the 
number of the Ramessides and give 13 kings to the dynasty, which 
is just possible " (Egypt IV. 525). 

But to bring this matter to a focus I may say that while we have in 
No. 20 of our list the great Sesostris, called, by Diodorus, iEgyptus ; 
and in No. 28 our Rameses II., called by Eratosthenes Meures, who 
or one of his sons was doubtless the Mares of Diodorus, whom he 
put 12th in descent from iEgyptus, we have in No. XXXIV. the 
man called by Diodorus Chemis and by Herodotus Cheops, the 
builder of the great pyramid. The name given to this man by 
Eratosthenes is interpretable as follows: "Sesostris, the son of 
Hermes, the strong Hercules." Judging by this title Eratosthenes 
deemed this man worthy of greater honor and distinction than any 
other man on his list ; and he might be thought to have understood 
him as the great Sesostris, as Diodorus apparently did. If, however, 
they meant that this man was the great couquerer, especially called 
Sesostris by the Egyptians, they were mistaken ; for while in No. 
XXXIII. ,we recognize in Rameses VII. (Sethechopschef of Lepsius) 
the Stamenemes (Sethi-Amenemes) of Eratosthenes we have in No. 
XXXIV. (Chaem-Miamun) the Chemis of Diodorus, the Cheops of 
Herodotus, the builder of the great pyramid. And in No. XXXV. 
we have Rameses IX. (Rameses Mri-Amn ; Ra khepher Ma 
Sutp N. Ra) doubtless the Chephren, brother of Chemis, the builder 
of the second pyramid. And in No. XXXVI. we have Rameses X. 
(Siphthah), being the name Siphoas of the same number of Eratos- 

6— c 



52 DYNASTIES. 

thenes, who was doubtless grandson of his No. XXXIV. This 
man is, therefore, Souphis or Cheops II., the same with 
the Mencheres or Mykerinus of Diodorus and Herodotus, who 
is said to have partially built the third pyramid. In our Rameses 
XI. and XII. we, therefore, have the correspondents of Nos. 
XXXVII. and XXXVIII. respectively of Eratosthenes' list, 

As intimated before Africanus, not having given us the names of 
the kings of his 20th dynasty, so called, but only the number of 
them, as 12, and the aggregate of their years as 135 (185 in Lepsius) 
we are somewhat in the dark as to the particular history of the last 
ten, but hope more light may yet be derived to us from the monu- 
ments. It is seen, however, that as far as we give information 
concerning them it is rather of a definite character. But I will say 
here, that the arrangement of an 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties, as 
here, may not appear to be so sj'stematic an arrangement as to the 
number of the dynasties given in the histories for the time, as that 
of five successive ruling dynasties, which I have pointed out in the 
arrangement of Africanus as from Manetho, although this may be 
one too many. And in explanation of how these three dynasties, 
so-called, stand for the five successive ruling dynasties in Africanus 
I will remark as follows : — 

The 18th dynasty to the number of about 16 names as in Africanus 
is really one dynasty; but up to that point it has been entered in 
the books as two, viz., the 1st and 3rd, arising from the following 
circumstance : Two sons of Amenophis III. there were from one of 
whom, doubtless a younger one, descended the regular line of rulers 
for 8 or 9 successions or down to and including the 16th ; and from 
the other son mentioned, doubtless the older of the two, descended 
in the male line the father of the great Rameses as explained above. 
Now, long after the first house of the Rameses had come into power 
the male line of the ancestors of Rameses the Great up to Amenophis 
III., was entered in the history (doubtless, as an honorary title, for 
they were not kings of Egypt) as " the second dynasty." This, 
of course, necessitated that the regular line from Amenophis III. to 
its replacement in power by the first Rameses, should be styled 
" the third dynasty." This, therefore, accounts for the first three 
dynasties of Africanus, of which, as j'ou see according to my last 
tabulation, of two parallel columns, only two, the first Bnd third, 
were in succession and in power. 

The next dynasty is the first house of the Ramesidse. It is third 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OP ANCIENT EGYPT. 83 

in succession, but is the 6th as in Africanus. Parellel and contem- 
porary with this ruling dynasty, called the 6th, which connected, 
as we have seen, in male line directly with the 2nd, was the 4th 
dynasty so called, which was parallel and contemporary with the 
6th as the 2nd with the 3rd ; that is, it was like the 2nd dynasty 
an ex-officio line, not a continuation, indeed, of the 3rd dynasty, 
but a parallel house of Ramessidcs descended, as I suppose, from a 
brother of Eameses the Great. Our priest Schaigh, who at the head 
of the 6th dynasty isOthoes, and as the last name of the 2nd dynasty 
is Cheneres, is at the head of this 4th dynasty Soris. 

The 5th dynasty, properly understood, is doubtless the continu- 
ation in the male line from the first king of the 4th ; for I take 
Sebercheres, No. 7 in the 4th dynasty, to have been husband of 
Tasesar, although he may have never ascended the throne himself. 
The name Thamphthis, which next succeeds his, as No. 8 of the 4th 
dynasty, is a female name, as is indicated by the feminine form, 
Tha, of the article, instead of the masculine form Pha, being pre- 
fixed to the name. It is here another form of name representing in 
this list of the 4th dynasty, the same person as the Tasesar or 
Nitokris of the 6th. Eusebius continues the 5th dynasty, after the 
4th, as if he understood it to be in some way, a continuation in the 
male line of the latter. 

The Sethar, No. 27 of my regular list, is the same with the Chuthar 
No. XXVII of Eratosthenes' list, and theCheres, which is fifth nain e 
in Africans' 5th dynasty. And my MernraNo. 26, which isthe proper 
Neilos of history, and was also called Schethar, pronounced Schihor, 
which is another name, for theNile, is the Semphrukrates or Her. 
kules Harpokrates, No. XXVI of Eratosthenes' list, and the Sisiris, 
which is the fourth name in the old 5th dynasty of Africanus. 

Speaking in relation to Neilos, I may say that to the last four or 
five kincs of Eratosthenes' list there would seem to have been some 
of the names as well as actions transferred, which properly belong 
to Sesostris, the great, No. 20 of my list, and to his son, grandson 
and great-grandson, ending properly with No. 26. 

We perceive, therefore, the 2nd house of the Rame sides to have 
been the old 5th dynasty, called Elephantin, and to have descended 
in the male line from Menes though the 4th and 2nd dynasties. 

This name Sethos or Rameses, which was understood as its 
equivalent, was often turned into Oser, Ouser, i.e., Sesar, as is seen 
in Ra Sesar, No. 16 of the Papyrus, for the name of the father of 



84 DYNASTIES. 

Rameses and Ra-Sesar, No. 18 of the same Papyrus, for Rameses the 
Great, himself. Sebek and Seber were understood as variations of 
the name Sethos, or vice versa, as Seb or Seph of Seth, at least in the 
written histories. For the names, then, as appearing in the 4th 
dynasty of Africanus we thus account: Soris, No. 1, is the same 
with Othoes No. 1 of the 6th dynasty. Thamphthis No. 8 of 
dynasty 4th with Nitokris No. 6 of dynasty (5th. Then we have 
the following running contemporary and parallel : — 

Saophis n Souphis £> Phios Athotis « 

a £ p* 5 

Saophis II. 3 with Souphis II. a with Methosouphis § with Armais u 
Mencheres § Mencheres 2 Phiops >> Rameses g, 

•g S O g 

Mosthes. Ratoises ~* Menthosouphis j Amenophis ^ 

Ja S g 

Pammes - Bicheres *" Nitokris « Tasesar »« 



o 
Sebercheres 



o 



Of the men represented in the 6th dynasty here Phiops, 
i.e., Rameses the Great, lived to an extraordinary age, having 
reigned, according to Eratosthenes and others, 100 years, which 
may possibly account for one more generation appearing in the 
contemporary parallel line of the 4th dynasty. 

Whether or not for other remarkable accomplishments of his as 
well as for the building of the great pyramid, our Rameses VIII., 
the Sesostris No. 35 of Africanus' old 12th dynasty, appears to 
have been in the mind of Eratosthenes the greatest character of 
the Egyptian history. As I have said before the first very remark- 
able character as in my list was Sesostri's 1st, after whose name, 
iEgyptus, the country was called Egypt. The second remarkable 
hero was Mares, whom Diodorus makes 12th after .ZEgyptus, which 
iEgyptus, being in the mind of Diodorus 17th or 18th in the list 
of kings, would make Mares to be the 29th or 30th. But Herodotus 
may not have been entirely correct in saying that Mares was dead 
scarcely 900 years at the time of his visit to Egypt ; if, however, 
he were nearly correct, we should have for the approximate date 
of Mares 450+900=1350 B. C, which would come within the time 
we get for our Rameses II. and his three successors, whom some 
have supposed to have been his sons, i.e., 1387 — 1288 B. C. 
But, if we take Sethos I., No. 23 of my list, as Rameses II. proper, 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 85 

then some might suppose that his four successors, 24 to 27 inclusive, 
were his sons, as according to the theory of the four or five broth- 
ers succeeding their father Ranieses II. Of these two, Siphthah 
and Amenemseth, are put down as the Sons of Tasesar and although 
there be no pedigree given of Mernra and Sethar my own opinion 
is that Sethar was son of Mernra, and the latter son of Sethos, who 
in turn was son of Amenophis, son of Sesotris. This time would 
be about 1454 — 1387. For our Mares, then, considering the place 
given in the list for him by Diodorus and the approximate 
time given for him by Herodotus, it is most reasonable that we 
hold on to our Rameses II., No. 28 of my list, especially since the 
name given against that number in Eratosthenes is Meures. For 
the accomplishment of all the works ascribed to him I think it 
reasonable to count in his two or three immediate successors with 
himself, these being in the list of Africanus respectively Rathoures, 
Mencheres, Tatcheres, Nos. 29, 30, 31, of the left-hand column of 
the two where Rathoures is for Mares. So much as to Mares, who 
might be called Sesostris II., as we have him Rameses II. 

The third great character they seem to specify is Sistosichermes, 
Chaem-Miamum, our Rameses VIII., before mentioned as the 
builder of the great pyramid, and doubtless the performer of other 
remarkable deeds; for the name Sistosichermes, i.e., Si-Soth-Si- 
Hermes, means "the son of Sothis," the Star of Egypt, "the 
Son of Hermes" or Thoth, the God of letters and science. And 
Africanus, as from-Manetho, after telling us how Herodotus informs 
us that Cheops built the great pyramid, adds : " This man also 
was a contemner of the Gods and compiled the Sacred Book, which, 
as a great desideratum, I, when in Egypt, procured a copy of for 
myself." I have not learned the religious tenets of that book, but 
would not wonder if Cheops' faith were a variety of the Hebrew. 
This system of tabulation would make him to have belonged to the 
5th ruling dynasty ; but while this be artificially so, he may have 
been really of the 4th. 

For, as to the male descent of our Rameses VI. the Amenemes No. 
XXXII. of Eratosthenes, who is supposed to have begun the ola 
12th dynasty, so called, I may say that in Africanus the name, as I 
interpret it, is given as " Amenemhes, the son of Sesonchosis." 
This, too, may be concluded the correct reading from the name 
Sesonchosis preceding that of Amenemes on the Tablet of Karnak ; 
and from the fact that in Eratosthenes this first Amenemes stands 



86 12th dynasty. 

second after Soikunios. Appears it not plain that Sesonchosis is 
the same with Soikunios* and that Amenemes directly succeeded 
to his own or his father's brother? If so, and it is more than 
probable, then Amenemes did not begin a new dynasty and so the 
tradition is true that the great pyramid was built by the 4th dynasty, 
which, in the way it has been made out, completes the successive 
ruling dynasties of the old Empire. 

Now, from the ascent to power of our Barneses II. to that of our 
Rameses VI. the founder of the 12th dynasty, so called, there are 
four reigns in 99 years, which look not impossible for two gener- 
ations, that is supposing that those three successors of our Rameses 
II. were his sons. The first of these successors, No. XXIX., is given 
by Eratosthenes a reign of eleven years ; the second, No. XXX., a 
reign of 60 years ; and the third, whom we might suppose a 
younger brother of the preceding, a reign of 16 years, which, with 
the 12 years given for the reign of Rameses II., himself, makes up 
99 years. According to this, too, our Rameses VI., the founder of 
the 12th dynasty, so called, was the son of Rameses IV., the eighth 
King of the old 5th dynasty. 

But the discovery of our 12th dynasty being descended in male 
line from the 8th King of the 5th sets us to find out how it could 
have been, in any reason, called the 12th; for before this the 6th 
was the highest up we got in the number of the dynasties. We 
suppose there was a reason for giving it the title of the 12th dynasty 
and the following appears to have been that reason. There came 
to be doubtless, in the progress of the old fifth dynasty, several 
parellel lines through which the genealogies of the monarchs were 
traced back, whether in male or female line, and called by different 
names, such as Herakleopolitan, Memphite, Theban, etc., of which 
now no representation remains in the books. These would, in the 
books be called dynasties, in an honorary way, because of the de- 
scent through them of some of the distinguished monarchs, such as 
Mares, or Sesonchosis, or Amenemes, or Cheops, just as the 2nd 
dynasty got that title from descent through it of Sesostris-Rameses. 
In relation to what I have said farther back as to the names in 
my first and second 3 columns' systems not agreeing as to numbers, 

* Soikun=Seaghan=Gegan, earth born, gigant, which is the name Se-Son- 
Chosis, t.e, the two forms are for the same root name, only the last has affixed the 
Egyptian adjective Chosis for Tosis, from the root of " to rule," " to govern." Ses- 
onchosis = Soikunios = the ruling dynast. 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OP ANCIENT EGYPT. 87 

referring to those tabulations again you will see the name of queen 
Nitokris standing under the 31st number in the middle column of 
the 1st and 2nd 3 columns' arrangement, in the former case 27 and 
in the latter case 9 names farther down than as it stood in the 
list of Eratosthenes. But, on the other hand, you will find in the 
3rd column, that is my own list, Queen Tasesar No. 22 answering 
exactly to the place Nitokris has in Eratosthenes' list ; Tasesar means 
simply " the queen," being made up of the feminine article Ta and 
Sesar. This is a title by which the historians have entered Queen 
Nitokris. Some might think this last was not the name of that queen ; 
but it is either a name by which she was called or an historical title, 
for it is Egj'ptian, Neith-akar, meaning Athena-victrix, and not an 
affectation of the historians. Bunseu, in the Synopsis he gives of 
the Eg3'[)tian history of Herodotus, represents that historian as 
saying that Nitokris was a foreigner to Egypt ; but Herodotus says 
distinctly "she was a native of the country " and in another place 
Bunsen states this matter correctly. 

The result we have now arrived at with remarkable definiteness 
would have the effect of amazingly curtailing the figures given by 
Syncellus as for Manetho's complete Egyptian empire from Menes 
to Nectanebo inclusive. For, according to Prof. Lepsius' compu- 
tation, the 20th dynasty ended in about 1115 B. C. Now, 1115 
minus 350 B. C, the approximate termination of the 30th dynasty, 
leaves 765 years for the new empire, which added to the 1076 years 
of Eratosthenes' list for the old empire gives 1841 years instead of 
3555 as stated by Syncellus. This computation also gives the date 
of Menes as something later than 2200 B. C, a date which, accord- 
ing to Usher's chronology, would, a person should think, be about 
the same with that of Mizraim, the grandson of Noah, thought to 
have been the same with Menes. (See dates given at the head of 
the middle columns of Gen. X, XI. ) It may be remarked that the 
dates arrived at by both Usher and Lepsius are only approxima- 
tive and that an exact result, if attainable, would likely bring them 
to the same numerical result and to the same man in regard to 
Egypt. The date we got for Menes upon the reckoning of 
Lepsius' ending for the 20th dynasty, is 2191 B. C. ; which, con- 
sidering Menes to have been identical with Mizraim and the Hyksos 
to have left Egypt in 1542 B. C, would leave the sojourn of that 
people in Egypt to have been for 649 years. 

The date we get for Menes is, doubtless, nearly that which Usher 



88 AS TO DATES. 

would give for Arphaxed the grandson of Noah and first cousin of 
Mizraim ; for, according to the chronology of that celebrated bishop 
the creation was 4004 B. C. ; the deluge about 2348 B. C. ; the 
confusion of tongues about 100 years later or 2248 B. C. ; and then 
it would require, say 57 years for Mizraim and his Schethites to 
have become established in the laud of the Nile and in the adjacent 
country of Libya and Ethiopia, having his occupation there quietly, 
according to this, in 2191 B. C. But, though the assistance, which 
the researches and deductions in Egyptian history and archaeology 
of Prof. Lepsius have rendered, is received by me with a proper 
and realizing sense of their worth, still I doubt not the data I possess 
will enable me to find a more correct date for Menes and to show 
before having finished with this illustrative critique that our Menes, 
so celebrated in history, as the founder of the Egyptian monarchy, 
was probably a grandson of the patriarch Abraham and no other 
than our Jacob-Israel, the ancestor of the twelve Palestinian tribes. 
Eratosthenes appears to have spelled his list of names in a very 
coarse manner, but there is no doubt but that this coarseness may have 
at least partially arisen from the interpolation of certain letters in 
some of the names by copyists in the times j>osterior to Eratos- 
thenes. If, for example, we cast the first r out of Phrouoro, 
XXXVII., we shall have the name in a more simple form and mean- 
ing the same. Phrouoro may be compounded either of Phre And Uro, 
that is a word for King repeated, the first being preceded by the 
definite article, or of Ph-Iara, meaning the river (Nile). This 
Phrouoro is also called Nilos by Eratosthenes; but it is more than 
likely this river had to the Egyptians all the meanings of river. 
King and God. He is our Rameses XI. It is remarked that in 
the time of this Nilos Troy was taken ; but I have remarked before 
that Old Tyre was probably taken by Rameses VII. Erathosthenes 
gives to the successor of Phruru, the last man of his list, a reign 
of 63 years, and to Phruru himself a reign of 19. Lepsius makes 
his 12th dynasty to terminate, after having existed 185 years, in 
1115 B. C. Now, if we suppose Troy (whatever ancient city that 
may have been) to have been taken in the second year of the rei<m 
of this Phruru, we shall have for the date of its capture 1115+17 
+ 63=1195 B. C.j but, as I have said elsewhere, Bunsen puts the 
date of the capture of Old Tyre by Rameses II. in 1287 B. C, and 
I myself put it in about 25 years later. In my mind Old 
Tyre was the real Troy. Would there have been some other old 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 89 

Pergamus, delightful city, destroyed in the days of our Phruru or 
Nilus, which would have given rise to this tradition ? 

We learn from the Apis inscriptions that our Barneses XII., the 
Amuthartaios, No. XXXVIII., of Eratosthenes, was succeeded in 
the Kingdom by Herhor, high priest of Amnion, who introduced 
in his person a new dynasty (21^t). His name at the head of 
his dynasty is given as Smendes (Si-Bai-n-tet, son of Amun Bai-n- 
tet), (the goat of Tatu, Osiris, Brugschj, (Si-Amn HB-HEB, 
High Priest). A person need not wonder at the names of the 
ancient Egyptian Kings appearing of different forms, as we find 
them in the different lists, for the name we get of a King in one 
list may, for example, be of his personal appellation, nomen or 
only prenomen, while in another list he may be set forth to us 
under one of his titles. 

The name Aahmes is said to mean the young moon, and the wife 
of our Amos or Menes is said to have been styled the Princess 
Aahmes Nefru-Ari, or Aahmes the very good defender. Aahmes 
is also the name of a man which arises from the fact that Aah, A, 
Ao or Io, the word for the Moon, in ancient Egyptian is masculine. 
The same word means the Moon-God, Thoth or Hermes, as well as 
the Moon itself, hence Thothmes and Aahmes and James ( English. 
James, Heb., Jacob) are exchangeable as written words. The 
names of the sun-god, Hercules, was also sometimes applied to 
the moon-god. Would the reason why the god of letters came to 
be identified with the moon-god be that scholars who devote them- 
selves to learning work much at night? 

It is thought Aahmes Nefruari, the beloved wife of our Amos, was 
Theban, but of an Etoiopian house, as the accounts represent her as 
black and unlike all the other Egyptian races. It is found, too, 
that our Amosis was on good and amicable terms with Ethiopia and 
and that a portion, at least, of that country paid him tribute. In 
a sepulchral inscription of the time " a captain of tiie Egyptian navy 
relates how he had served at Tanis (the Zoan of Scripture) under 
Amosis up to the 5th year of his reign. Then war broke out in the 
South and he was ordered to Kesh (Ethiopia) whither the King also 
afterwards repaired in order to collect the tribute." Over an in- 
scription at the quarries of Mokattam is the scutcheon of the King 
and on each side thereof that of his wife. Bunsen considers her to 
have been " an heiress in whose right her husband ruled and took 
her name of Young Moon, perhaps, on account of the inheritance. 



90 THERMUTHIS. 

At any rate, says he, it had reference to her and was afterwards 
dropped." (Egypt III, 113.) Here he confesses that Aahines 
was not the name of this King but of his wife. His proper name 
then was Mentuhept (Menes) the rising sun, the fixed, established. 
Josepbus simply calls him Tuthmosis, which would be an equivalent 
for Aahmes or Amosis. 

In another place Bunsen says: "Tuthmosis I. never appears u s 
the son of Amosis. He was, however, a younger brother or a 
near kinsman. " Speaking of his reign he says: "We find in 
the first place as regent, Aahmes, the royal wife, divine sjicuse, 
lady of both countries, the royal sister." (Id. Ill, 115.) This 
would, on the whole, point to the equality of the names Tuthmosis 
and Amosis and to their mutability with each other. I have men- 
tioned before how that the Hebrews are supposed to have been 
connected with this King under a name Chnebron and the youth 
and manhood of Moses are connected with him in the narratives of 
Josephus. The name of the King's daughter by whom Moses is 
adopted and brought up is Thermuthis. We are told by Josephus 
that the Ethiopians, a little before this time, had invaded Egypt and 
done much damage to that country, in order to have satisfaction 
for which Moses was placed in command of an Egyptian expedition 
against Ethiopia. When arrived in that country at the head of his 
force he succeeded by means of the good offices of Tharbis, the 
daughter of the Ethiopian King who had become enamored with 
him, in taking their capital city, which having accomplished he. 
married this Ethiopian princess. I wonder Bunsen did not mention 
this coincidence in connection with Amos: but it seems not to have 
occurred to his mind, although, he displays elsewhere a great readi- 
ness in scriptural references. It appears certain that at the time 
of this Amos or Menes there existed a very intimate connection be- 
tween Ethiopia and Egypt. Would Misraim have made conquest or 
settlement of the whole Nile's Valley, Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia and 
Libya when once he had set out from his Scythic home in Asia, 
after the confusion of tongues? The inscription above mentioned 
tells us that Amosis in person went into Ethiopia, while Josephus 
informs us that Moses had command of the Egyptian expedition 
thereto in the time of this same King. Moses, then, must have 
been his lieutenant general, his alter ego, standing in a like relation 
to him as Joseph sustained to the Pharaoh of his time. The whole 
bearings of the case, sutcheons and all, show that Amos was married 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 91 

to an Ethiopian princess. Would he as well as his general, Moses, 
have been so fortunate as to have secured a good wife, an excellent 
Ethiopian princess, as one of the results of his expedition? Would 
not the name of this King Amosis or Tuthmosis, either of which 
might be as easily written Moses, as his appellation Chnubra would 
be written Hebron, have suggested the name of the celebrated 
Hebrew law-giver as connected with this period, although according 
to Usher's chronology, he did not live at this period, but in some 
generations later? 

The account Josephus gives of Moses in connection with Ther- 
muthis would indicate him to have been understood as an adopted 
son, at least of Pharaoh. In his antique style he says as follows 
(Ant. II. IX. 7) : " Thermuthis, therefore, perceiving him to be so 
remarkable a child, adopted him for her son, having no child of her 
own. And, when one time she had carried Moses to her father, she 
showed him to him and said she thought to make him her father's 
successor, if it should please God that she should leave no legiti- 
mate child of her own ; and said to him ' I have brought up a child, 
who is of a divine form and of a generous mind; and as I have re- 
ceived him from the bounty of the river in a wonderful manner I 
thought proper to adopt him as my son and the heir of the King- 
dom?' And when she had said this she put the infant into her 
father's hands ; so he took him and hugged him close to his bosom; 
and, on his daughter's account, in a pleasant way, put his diadem 
upon his head ; but Moses threw it down to the ground, and, in a 
puerile mood he wreathed it round and trod upon it with his feet; 
which seemed to bring along with it an evil presage concerning the 
Kingdom of Egypt. But when the sacred scribe (who was the 
same person that foretold that his nativity would bring the domin- 
ion of that Kingdom low) saw this, he made a violent attempt to 
kill him, and crying out, in a frightful manner, he said, 'This, O 
King, this child is he of whom God foretold that if we kill him we 
shall be in no danger; he himself affords an attestation to the 
prediction of the same thing, by his trampling upon the government 
and treading upon thy diadem. Take him, therefore, out of the 
way, and deliver the Egyptians from the fear they are in about him : 
and deprive the Hebrews of the hope they have of being en- 
couraged by him.' But Thermuthis prevented him and snatched 
the child away. And the King was not hasty to slay him, God 
himself, whose providence protected Moses, inclining the Kiug to 



92 MOSE8. 

spare him. He was, therefore educated with great care ; so the 
Hebrews depended on him and were of good hopes that great 
things would be done by him ; but the Egyptians were suspicious 
of what would follow such his education. Yet because if Moses 
had been slain there was no one either akin or adopted that had 
any oracle on his side for pretending to the crown of Egj'pt and 
likely to be of great advantage to them they abstained from killing 
him." 

In this passage the river is personified, where Thermuthis says 
she has received him from the bounty of the river. In the margin 
of the Bible, the name Moses is said to signify " drawn out of the 
water." This would be one of the meanings of the name Am, 
from, Seth (from which Seh) water, from the water. Seth means 
also the sun, while being the word from which our " Sea." But 
for another meaning of the name you have Ma, true, and Seth or 
Seh for Teth, scribe, thus " true scribe." Thoth, Mercury or 
Hermes, was the Scribe of the Gods. In a passage of the " Book 
of the Dead," we read " Tet otherwise Set." See translation by 
Birch, also Egypt, I., 427. In the Bible Cain slays his brother 
Abel, and in the Egyptian Mythology Seth slays his brother Osiris, 
which is explained by the interpreters, as meaning that the flood 
drowned the world. Seth is Cain, Abel is Osiris. Sometimes 
also, Seth is represented as the same with Osiris : it is the same 
differently manifested, and when you say you can (Cain) you say 
you are Abel (Norman Fr., Habel, Eng. Able). The name Thoth 
is also spelled Athoth, and of Seth Aseth, Am-aseth, Amosis, 
Moses; Amathoth, Mouthosis, or Tuthmosis. 

Yet, the Greek Thoth is the most important of all the Cabiri, 
the sons of Sedyk. His sign is the Ibis, and his name, judging 
from the Coptic form of it, is connected with the Egyptian root for 
word Tet, to speak ; Gr. Uyob, word. He is the Scribe of the 
Gods and called "Lord of the Divine Words," "the Scribe of 
Truth;" the " great-great guardian of the pure souls in the hall of 
the two Truths" (on account of his signing the sentences on 
the souls of the dead): the self-created, never born." He is the 
God of Ses or Sesen, the eighth region, and of Eshmunaim or 
Hermopolis magna. In a temple built for his worship by Erga- 
mun, King of Ethiopia, about 280 B. C, he is called Pn-nbs, Pan- 
Nubes. The Greek inscriptions there call him Pantnuphis. In a 
temple at Samneh in Nubia, he is called, according to Wilkinson, 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 93 

son of Kneph. This is the same as son of Neb, as above, or Nub, 
Num, Chnub, Chnum. It is the Greek Pneuma, wherein it is seen 
that p or ph is the prefix representative of c, g, or ch in the Egyp- 
tian in this case. But Thoth is Chnub. The moon's disk on his 
head is sometimes his distinguishing mark in allusion to his plane- 
tary nature (he being called " Lord of the Moon" ). Sometimes the 
ostrich feather (as sign of Ma, truth), and the writing tablet with 
St\lus in allusion to his headship of Hades and his office in the 
trial of souls. The connection between Tet and the moon, Wilkin- 
son thought, might refer to the primitive use of a lunar year. The 
ancients had early remarked that the moon in Egyptian, was mascu- 
line, not feminine as the Greeks and Latins generally had it. Still 
Thoth was the particular moon-god. There is met with a deity 
called after the moon, Aah (Coptic Ooh, Ioh), either as a mere per- 
sonification or as Thoth, in whom the agency of the moon and 
nature was represented as a living principle. In the tombs of the 
Rameseum, we find it so represented opposite to Phre. He is, ac- 
cording to Champollion, often met with in the train of Amun. He 
makes him green with the four sceptres and cap of Ptah by the 
side of which is a kind of infantine lock, denoting child or son. 
In the tombs a moon-god is represented sitting on a bark and 
holding the sceptre of benign power, to whom two cynocephali are 
doing homage, followed by the crescent and nuter god. The con- 
sort of Thoth is called " Mistress of the Writings." On her head 
she carries a pole with five rays and two horns over them, or with 
seven rays and two horns. Bunsen agrees with Birch that her 
name means "Seven." Lenormant and Lepsius translate it 
"yesterday." Her name probably referred to " the past," and 
she may be the prototype of the Grecian Muse of History. 

Mau, commonly read Mu, Mui, is called in the hieroglyphics, 
son of Ra (the Sun). He is distinguished by an ostrich feather, 
which signifies light, intellect (coptic meui, intellect), and is also 
the sign of Ma, Truth ; he has sometimes, moreover, a feather or- 
nament, like that of Amun. In the Ritual he appears as God of 
the Lower World. This must be a variation of the idea of Thoth. 
In another representation in which he is pictured as the strong, 
victorious, he is adorned with a bull's head and standing with 
hands upraised as it were blessing the people. Champollion con- 
sidered him as Hercules and translated his name Djom==Shem, 
without, however, being quite sure that he was correct. At Biban 



94 SYMBOLIZATION. 

el Moluk he sits with a fillat and feather exactly like Ma, red and, 
again, standing, green with two large feathers like the sculptures 
in the temple at Ipsambul. To him and a female deity, standing 
at his side, Rameses is offering sacrifice. 

The Hall of Justice in the Lower World is named after Ma, 
Truth, Justice. She is frequently called Daughter of Ra (the 
Sun). She appears sitting, sometimes winged, sometimes without 
wings. Representations other are frequent on the monuments of 
the old Pharaohs. She is styled Goddess of the Lower Country. 
Of the connection between Ma and Ptah, the creator of the world, 
there is no doubt. Ma, Truth, typifies the world, the Cosmos, con- 
taining in itself the real and true image of God. Doubtless, on 
this account, she occurs more frequently as Man, inasmuch as she 
typifies the properties of God in nature as well as in man, which 
prove the reality of their existence merely by the reality, that is, 
truth of their appearance. Mau and Ma have the character of ad- 
ministrative deities. Truth is intimately connected with light, in- 
telligence: and in regard to its composition, Am-athoth or Moses 
would seem to receive a more literal translation as " Scribe of 
Truth " or "True Recorder " than as " Drawn out of the Water." 
Truth, troth, truce is Toth causative? 

Seti, in the Coptic sate (arrow sunbeam), appears as the consort 
of Kncph. This would mean, from what we have seen before, con- 
sort of Thoth. By very slight variation of the name, or none, the 
same deity is represented as male or female. In the quarries of 
Elephantina, where there are inscriptions of the time of Caracalla 
containing the names Chnubis and Juno those in the Egyptian 
language contain that of Sate. A Latin inscription at Syene men- 
tions .Jupiter Chenubis and Juno Regina; and a statue at Philre 
is dedicated to Chnubis and Sate by Ptolemy Euergetes. Hora- 
pollo (1, 11) contrasts Sete (Hera) with Neith (Athena) in refer- 
ence to the visible expanse. She rules over the upper as Neith 
does over the lower firmanent. To Ptah or Pthah, the creator, it 
appears tome Neith corresponded; and Bunsen says (Egypt 1, 
387) " In Ptah and Neith the Deity completed its manifestation as 
to the soul of the world ; and they both entered directly into the 
Theban representation of the first principle." To Seth or Ra, the 
sun, the Lord of the upper world, Sate corresponded. 

Seth was Nubi, Chnubi. Canopus (Canopy) is one of the forms 
of his name in Greek. The orator Aristides was informed by an 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OP ANCIENT EGYPT. 95 

Egyptian priest that Canopus meant " the golden floor," but that 
the pronunciation of the Egyptian word is difflcult to catch and to 
express in writing. The golden floor has, of course, reference to 
the firmanent. Heraclides of Pontus, the pupil of Plato, stated 
that " the Oracle of Canobus is that of Pluto; " this being so he 
is equivalent to Serapis and Osiris and Seth. In a myth preserved 
by Plutarch Tbaueris was lover of Seth, whom she left and attached 
herself to Horus. The latter received her and slew the serpent by 
whom she was pursued. According to others this lover was like- 
wise called Aso, the queen of Ethiopia. Jablonski thinks that 
Ethiopia may be meant, that name, whose Memphitic rendering is 
Ethoch and Sahidic, Eskoch, being incorrectly given in the Coptic 
Bible as Asos; but it is more likely an Ethiopic-Theban deity is 
meant. According to Wilkinson this god Set or Nubi whom he al- 
ways calls Obtaut (Uab-Thoth the Pure or Priest Taut) is repre- 
sented at Karnak as sharing with Atumu the highest veueration, 
and pouring out his blessings on Sesostris. Set-Nubi was a dis- 
tinct deity from Amun-Khem and yet the internal connection 
between them is undeniable. The crocodile is sacred to Set as well 
as to Chemmis. As regards all those deities the internal and ex- 
ternal points of connection and of distinction are noticeable. 

The forms Sut and Sutech are also ancient for Seth. He occurs 
in Salvolini's extract in the MS. of Aix as an ass, where he quotes 
the Greek transcript of the name Seth. Epiphanius, also, describes 
the ass as Seth. " The Egyptians," he says, " celebrate the fes- 
tivals of Typhon under the form of an ass, which they call Seth." 
The hippopotamus, however, was sacred to him as well as the croc- 
odile, ass and dog-star. According to Plutarch Typhon's complex- 
ion was of a reddish tinge. The struggle of Horus and Seth or 
Typhon is referred to in the Book of the Dead as the " Day of the 
battle between Her and Set." 

Besides his other names of Bar which is Baal, Plutarch calls 
Typhon Apophis, the monumental Apep (i.e. Seth andSesostris = 
Apapus). He says also that according to most of the priests the 
two names Osiris and Apis were joined in one, because Apis, the 
Memphite ox, was the image of the soul of Osiris ; and Wilkinson 
finds the two joined together in a hieroglyphic inscription Apis- 
Hesiri. At any rate there is little doubt that Serapis is for Osiris- 
Apis. He has another passage which is thought to allude to the 
identity of Osiris and Typhon. He is combatting the notion that 



96 SYMBOLIZATION. 

Osiris is the sun's disk, the sun, as some maintained, because the 
Greeks called him Seirios. This he supposed to signify that the 
word Osiris is Sirius with the article prefixed. Afterwards he adds 
that in the Hermetic Books, where the sacred names are mentioned, 
Hermes (Thoth) is said to be Apollo and to represent the rotatory 
motion of the sun, while the power that gives activity to the mind 
is by some called Osiris, by some Serapis and by others Sothis, 
which last is equivalent to Seirios which equals Seth. The word 
Sothi signified childbearing, pregnancy (xD£:v). Osiris and Isis are 
the Nile and Egypt. The myth of Osiris typifies the solar year ; 
his gentle power is the sun in the lower hemisphere, the winter 
solstice. The vernal equinox is typified by the birth of Horus ; 
the victory of Horus by the summer equinox, the inundation of 
the Nile. Her is a new form of Hesiri as the God of the natural 
sun and of physical life. Typhon (Seth) is the autumnal equinox, 
the sun in his strength. Osiris is slain on the 17th Athyr (13th 
November) and thence till the middle of December the rule of Ty- 
pho lasts. During this period many a Jacob in those regions, 
within certain geographical limits, has to wrestle with this power- 
ful Edom and become an Israel or succumb in the sand. 

Misor, in the Phoenician Mytholgoy, was the brother of Sydek, 
the just, and the father of Thoth, the God of Knowledge, who 
invented written characters. He himself was the freely-actmg 
God and in the Syriac version (in Acts xiv, 12) Mercury (Thoth) 
is rendered by the same word mesare, the Redeeming. Misor and 
Sydek, the Redeeming and the Just, are of cognate signification and 
sometimes used in apposition with each other; and Varro informs 
us that the Phoenicians worshioed heaven and earth under the 
names of Taaut and Astarte. 

LIST OF THE TURIN PAPYRUS. 

I will now submit to you the fragments from the Turin Papyrus 
which I suppose to contain those 38 names represented in Eratos- 
thenes' List : — 

Fragment I (vi. 72) 9 scutcheons. 

A. Ra S. Hept Het. 

1. Ra Khu Ta. 

2. Ra Pekh Ear. 

3. Amenemha. 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 97 

4. EaS. Hept Het. 

5. Aufna. 

6. Ra S. Ankh Het. 

7. RaS.MenKar. 

8. Ra S. Hept Het. 

9. Ea MenKar. 

Here one or more names are wanting. 

Fragment II (vi. 76-79) 14 scutcheons. 

10. Ea Hem Het. 

11. Ea Sebek Hept. 

12. Ren Snab. 

13. 

14. Ea S. Tef. 

hem Khu teti. 

15. Ea Pekh Sebekhept. 

16. Ea Seser S. Hept N Ea. 

17. Ea~ Ka. 

18. Ea Seser 

19. Ea Pekh Kar Sebekhept. 

20. Ea Sha Kar Nefruhept. 

21. EaHat Mentusa. 

22. Ea Sha Nefru Sebekhept. 

23. Ea Sebekhept. 

Names of the following two Kings supposed restored by Lep- 
sius:— 

24. Ea Sha Karu Nefruhept. 

25. Ka Sha Ankh Nefruhept. 

Fragment m (viii. 81) 8 scutcheons. 

26. Ea Sha Hept. 

27. Ea Uah Het Ahet. 

28. EaMer Nefru. 

29. Ea Mer Hept. 

30. Ea S. Ankh — N. Shtu. 

31. EaMer Ankh — Anka. 

32. Ea Snab Kar — Hera. 

33. Ra M. Kar. Nub. 

34. 



7— c 



98 TUKIN PAPYRUS. 

" Uncertain Fragments." 

Fragment V. (viii, 94, 95) 9 scutcheons. 

1 Su. 

2 Ma— Ah. 

3 Uben — Har. 

4 Kar. 

5 n 

The next Fragment is VI. (ix. 97) consisting of 8 to 11 scut- 
cheons, the chief of the line being Ra Nahasi (Ethiopian Helios). 

Independently of this Fragment V., under the head of uncertain 
Fragments, it might, perhaps, be concluded that we have in effect 
our list of 38 kinojg in the foregoing somewhat defaced list from 
the Papyrus. For, says Bunsen, in relation to this: " It would be 
in itself a most improbable notion that no namesshould be wanting 
between the Fragments. As regards the first three, 3 names at 
least are omitted between them." (Egypt 11.483.) He may be 
mistaken as to the omission of just three names between the above 
three Fragments; but it would seem a most probable conclusion 
that those three Fragments (I, II, III, as above) were originally a 
copy of the list of the rulers of the 18th, 19th, and 20th djnasties 
so called, or of Eratosthenes' List, consisting of 38 names; for even 
those two lists last mentioned show us that the ancient Egyptian 
Scribes entered the appellations of the same persons somewhat 
differently in different and independent lists. 

Bunsen says (Id. ) that " the points of contact between the Tablet 
of Karnak and the Thcban names in the Papyrus are limited to the 
first fourteen scutcheons of the former." Which may mean very 
little, but if it do mean anything it tends to show that the Tablet of 
Karnak belonged to a reign long posterior to that of Tuthmosis 
III., to whom the erection of this Tablet has been by some of the 
historians ascribed. But, while Bunsen in the support of his Mid- 
dle Empire theory was endeavoring to connect the names in these 
Fragments with it, or with an earlier period of Egyptian history, 
how boldly you will perceive the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties are 
represented in all the features of those three Fragments in their 
somewhat obliterated state. Even in the 3rd and 5th names of 
Fragment I. you can notice the female names spelled here, Amen- 
emha and Auf na which are respectively in the other lists, Amensis 
and Misphra, and here the Ra (which, however, is sometimes pre- 
fixed to names of females) is wanting. 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 99 

Queen Taseser I suppose to be the Ea Hat — Mentusa, No. 21 
of our Fragment II. of the Papyrus, which being No. 22 of our regu- 
lar list in 3d column may indicate that there is only one name want- 
ing in the Papyrus list up to that point and that the three or four 
names which Bunsen notices as being wanting in the three Frag- 
ments must rightfully belong after this name. A consideration of 
these three Fragments, as a whole, will perhaps show that the few 
names that are now absent from them are those of females. 

When it is remembered that in the ancient Egyptian " the K is oc- 
casionally interchanged with the T " (Egypt I. 466) it will be the 
more easily understood how RaKhu Ta (No. 1 of our Fragment I.) 
must stand for King Thutha or Tuthmosis I. You can also see 
these elements of Teth in Nos. 4, 6 aud 8 of that Fragment, 
standing for Tothmes II. III. and IV. You will, moreover, easily 
recognize your Amenophis I. II. and III. in Nos. 2, 7 and 9 of the 
same Fragment. 

Josephus has " Sethos, called also Egyptus," to be the 18th 
name in his dynastic list ; but, even according to him, he would 
have been in effect 19th, his brother Harmais, reign, as his deputy 
over iEgypt, being usually reckoned before his. Some of the 
names Josephus has introduced are only substitutional forms for 
the real names of the rulers. In this manner has Africanus also 
acted to some extent and they both left out some names, at least 
of two of those who, according to the restoration of Lepsius, occu- 
pied the throne. It would seem to me that Ra Seser, No. 18 of 
our Fragment II., is for Rameses the Great or Sesostris and that 
the two or three immediately before are the members of his father's 
family, as I have explained in my list. 

By a close study and comparison of other lists in connection 
with the history I have had reasonable grounds for every step I 
took. And now, for example, in my concluding Sethos I., as put 
down in Africanus' and Eusebius' list as the first of the 19th dynasty, 
to have been identical with Rameses I. and II., and also with .Se- 
sostris the Great, I had the following reasons : First, we are in- 
formed in the list of Josephus that Sethos was called Rameses as 
well as iEgyptus, and I find in Lepsius' royal genealogies that his 
father, the priest Schaigh, must needs have introduced a new dy- 
nasty in his person and that the name Schaigh (Seth=ses) which 
means of itself King, gave rise to the name Rame-Schaigh (Ra- 
meses) which means chief king. Schaigh, then, is entered as having 



100 SESOSTRIS. 

been a king of Egypt, as we reasonably suppose after his wife's 
death, and so his name had to have a place in the royal list. After 
him, third in place, then is Rameses, his son (his daughter and 
another son intervening), which makes him 20th in place with the 
list simplified, having, as far as possible, the primitive forms of the 
names, thus obviating the use of the substitutional forms which are 
found in the other lists. 

Secondly, Herodotus informs us that " Sesotris, the Great, was 
the only Egyptian king who succeeded in conquering Ethiopia." 
Now, while we read of Sethos I., having made conquest of Cyprus, 
Phoenicia, Assyria and Media; of tho Rutenu, the Shasu and the 
Libyan Shepherds, we do not read under that name of aconquest of 
Ethiopia, while we find this Sethos doing other remarkable things 
which Heredotus ascribes to the great Sesotris, namely, the making 
of the great wall to protect Egypt from the attacks of the North- 
eastern nations, the making of canals, etc. But under the next 
name, that is, Rameses, called the Second, and by all " the Great," 
we read first of his conquest of Ethiopia and the Negrite races ; of 
the Libyans ; the Chethites, the peoples of Mesopotamia, etc. 
Putting all this together and comparing it with itself, and knowing 
the name of the father of this Rameses, and that he had been a king 
of Egypt not under the name of Rameses, I concluded that Ram- 
eses I., Sethos I., and Rameses II., of what may be called the 
repetitionary or substitutionary lists, were names all referring to 
the same man, who was also called Apappus, iEgyptus and Se- 
sotris the Great. Apappus is really an equivalent for Sethos as 
Tj'pho (Pepi) is for Seth. And in the division of his name the 
form Sethos was made to occupy the place in the list which belonged 
to the name of his brother Harmais 

The matter of the time given to these two names of the two 
brothers in the list would constitute another proof of this position ; 
for it is well known from Herodotus and others how that Armais 
was dethroned and chased from the kingdom by his brother, Se- 
thos, on his return from his Asiatic campaign, which some say 
lasted all of 9 years, others more, others less. Now, the time 
given by Bunsen to his " Sethos the Great " is 9 years, just about 
the time Armais would be expected to have occupied the throne in 
his brother's absence. And the time he allots to Rameses II., the 
Great, is 66 years, which was a little enough time, a person would 
think, for him in which to accomplish all that has been ascribed to 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 101 

him in the way of conquest, building, etc. Witness the piles he 
erected at Karnak, Luxor, Ipsambul, etc., after his conquest of 
Africa, Asia and part of Europe, and the public works he executed 
in the way of walls, canals, etc., by means of the prisoners he 
brought into the country from his expeditions. " On his return 
to Egypt," says Herodotus, " he employed tlie captives of the dif- 
ferent nations he had vanquished to collect those immense stones 
which were employed in the temple of Vulcan. They were also 
compelled to make those vast and numerous canals by which Egypt 
is intersected. In consequence of their forced labors Egypt, which 
was before conveniently adapted to those who traveled on horse- 
back or in carriages, became unfit for both. The canals occur so 
often and in so many winding directions that to travel on horseback 
is disagreeable, but in carriages impossible. The prince, however, 
was actuated by a patriotic motive. Before his time those who in- 
habited the inland parts of the country, at a distance from the river 
on the ebbing of the Nile suffered great distress from the want of 
water of which they had none but from muddy wells." 

The following paragraph is an illustration of the substitutionary 
method in Josephus where he had not the real names or the times 
of the kings : — 

" He (Rathotis, i.e., Queen Athotis,) 

was succeeded by Aramais 4 yrs. 1 mon. 

then Rameses 1 " 4 " 

then Armeses Miamum 66 " 2 " 

then Amenophis 19 " 6 " 

then Sethosis, who is also Rameses.. . 

The latter possessed a body of cavalry and a navy. He appointed 
his brother Armais viceroy and gave him all the authority of a 
sovereign," etc. There appear to be six men specified here, but 
there are really only three : Armais, Rameses the Great, who is also 
Sethosis, and reigns 66 years; and Amenophis. But although the 
six apparent names he gives here only represent three persons, still 
these apparent names may surely be considered substitutes for the 
real names of six successive occupants of the throne in the time rep- 
resented, which names Josephus did not know. 

After Josephus relates how that Armais, in the absence of his 
brother Sesostris, had exceeded the bounds of the administration 



102 SESOSTRIS. 

which his brother had committed to him and how that the high 
priest sent a dispatch to Sesostris to that effect, he says: " Upon 
wbich he came suddenly back to Pelusium and reassumed the gov- 
ernment." Nothing can be more natural. This shows that Artnais 
was king of Egypt during the series of years which his brother was 
abroad : for if his brother had not given up the government to him 
on his going away that brother could not be said to have reassumed 
it on his return. Consequently, although Armais is to be counted 
in place in the list of the kings for a certain number of years, yet 
his years are properly included within the years allotted to Sesos- 
tris. Not so the years of the reign of their sister, Athotis, who 
preceded them, the years of whose reign are not included in those 
of her brothers. Josephus says in connection : " Now after Sethos 
had deprived the latter of the sovereignty he reigned 59 years. 
The eldest of his two sons, Rameses, succeeded him and reigned 66 
years." (Contra, Apion I. 15, etc.) The two sons here refer to 
the same two brothers, Armais and Sethos, and the latter, " whose 
name was also Rameses," reigned 59 years plus the number of 
years occupied in his first campaign in Asia and Europe, which 
made 66 years or 68 as according to Eusebius. This must be so 
for his son, Amenophis (whom some have called Manduophis, but 
Bunsen Ameuephtha or Menephthah) was his immediate successor, 
as seen above, and is entered for a reign of 19, but by Eusebius of 
40 years. This son and immediate successor of Sesostris Herodotus 
calls Pheron, that is a Greek variation of Pharaoh, "the king," 
and at the same time gives a confirmation of my position as to the 
Sethos I., Rameses I. and Rameses II. of the lists being the same 
man. "On the death of Sesostris," says Herodotus, " his son 
Pheron, as the priests informed me, succeeded to his throne. This 
prince undertook no military expedition; but by the action I am 
going to relate he lost the use of his eyes." If then Rameses II. 
were the great Sesostris he must needs have undertaken military 
expeditions, which Herodotus says here he did not. Moreover, the 
Egyptian priests informed the Emperor Germanicus, when pointing 
out to him the monuments of the most celebrated hero of their 
nation that they themselves were accustomed to call him Rameses. 
The truth is that his name after that of his father was Schaigh 
(Sethos), which in the old languages has among other meanings, 
" a king," " the Sun ; " and this man, having attained to so great 
a supremacy as he ultimately did, was called Raamschaigh, Rameses 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 103 

or the chief king in the Egyptian, being a term equivalent to the 
king of kings among the Persians. His regular family name of 
which a Greek form is Sethos, the Greeks used making it Sesostris 
CSethosdair). Champollion thought it the highest meed of his labors 
to be able to identify him on the monuments and in the lists. 

A point I will mention here before going farther is that my iden- 
tification of Sethos the Great and Rameses, called the Second and 
the great, has the effect in my writings of making the distinguished 
conqueror No. 28 of my list, called by Bunsen and others Rameses 
III., to be Rameses II. The great Sesostris, the list being prop- 
erly set forth, with the original sign of each name in its propel" 
place, and without any repetition, is Rameses I. 

A FULLER ACCOUNT OF THE TURIN PAPYRUS. 

M. Drovetti, the French Consul General to Egypt who attained 
such great celebrity in the days of Napoleon for his love of Egyptian 
art, brought to Europe a roll of Papyrus, which was deposited in 
the museum at Turin. Here it lay neglected until Champollion 
discovered it in 1824, and being much interested in its appearance 
inserted a notice of it in the " Bulletin Universal." A closer in- 
spection showed him that this Papyrus contained a list of the 
ancient Egyptian dynasties and so he set himself to work to arrange 
the principal fragments, passing over, for the present, those of 
smaller dimensions. 

This MS. was found to be 6 feet long, 14 inches wide and ar- 
ranged in 12 columns, each containing from 26 to 30 lines. On it 
vestiges appeared of over 200 royal names and from the number of 
unconnected fragments it was thought there must be all of 250 
names. On the back were calculations in which the name Rameses 
occasionally appears, a circumstance which was supposed to estab- 
lish, at least approximately, the date of the compilation. The men- 
tion of the name Rameses would not necessarily indicate that the 
compilation was made in the time of any one of the RamesidaB — 
for the calculation would be made simply back or forth from the 
time of the Rameses referred to — and I have no doubt the Turin 
Papyrus was of a comparatively recent compilation. To Mr. Seif- 
farth is accorded the merit of having, at considerable pains and 
after considerable time, affected a restoration and reconstruction of 
this MS. even to its smaller pieces, which Champollion had thrown 



104 TURIN PAPrKUS. 

aside ; and which work of his was finally consummated by Lepsius. 
The general exposition of it given by the latter is as follows : — 

Its list begins with the dynasties of the Gods. Six names are 
preserved — Seb, Osiris, Seth, Horus, Thoth and Ma — by the side 
of the 7th, in which name Salvolini thought he discovered the 
Hawk, Lepsius found appended the number 400. According to 
the latter 3140 years are ascribed to Ma ; and to Thoth, as he 
thought, 3226. By the side of one of the dynasties of Gods, or, 
as some think, at the conclusion of the list of the Heroes and 
Manes, stands, according to Salvolini, the subjoined notice : — 

" Sum total : 23 reigns, 5613 years, — months, 28 days." 

This is taken as indicating that the Egyptian historic lists were 
arranged into dynasties ; the commencement of a new dynasty or 
a division in the same being supposed to be indicated by red char- 
acters. 

In the second column the names Menes and Athotis are preceded 
by computations, which the manipulators did not succeed in inter- 
preting: but in line 9 behind Horus, we read 13,420 years and 
then follows : — 

Kings up to Horus 23,200 years (it is sagely noticed here that, 
" the decimals may have dropped out "). Next to this come two 
mutilated data, where, however, they thought they could yet recog- 
nise the name Menes (lines 11, 12) — the 13th row still exhibits 
that of Athotis, the son and successor of Menes as accordiug to the 
lists. 

Lepsius has arranged the remaining royal rings of mortal kings 
as follows : — 

34 kings in 10 Fragments which he supposed to be those before 
the 6th dynasty (terminating with 3 kings of the 
5th). 

20 kings in 6 Fragments from the 6th to the 12th dynasty closing 
with the latter. 

54 Thus making for the old empire 54 names in 16 Frag- 

ments. 
65 kinsrs in 6 Fragments. 



119 Thus making 119 names in all, 65 of these being for 

the new empire. From the 21st to the 30th dynasty, 

these two inclusive, there are reckoned in Africanus 47 kings. If 

to these we add the three Persians, Ochus, Arses and Darius, which 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 105 

constituted the 31st dynasty, we have for this period 50 kings down 
to 332 B. C, when the Greeks took possession of the government. If 
to this we add 18 or 19 Greek rulers of Egypt from 332 down to the 
death of Cleopatra, in about 26 B. C, we shall have 68. The ap- 
pellations of these Grecian kings of Egypt were in order, as I find 
them from Rollin (if we except Alexander the Great andAridaeus, 
who never were known as kings of the country) as follows : Ptol- 
emy-Lagus, Soter, Philadelphus, Euergetes, Philopater, Epi- 
phanes, Philometer, Pb_vscon, Lathyrus, Alexander, Alexander II., 
Auletes, Philometer, Physcon, Lathyrus, Alexander, Auletes, Cleo- 
patra. Ptolemy was their distinguishing appellation as kings of 
Egypt of the Macedonian line, somewhat, perhaps, as Pharaoh was 
the distinguishing title of the old Egyptian kings. Now, suppos- 
ing this reckoning to be correct and that there are no repetitions 
in the names of these rulers, we have eighteen for 300 years, mak- 
ing the average reign 17 years. But if there be a repetition of 3 
names, as I have vaguely thought there might be, then the average 
reign is 20 years. But, however this may be, we have here a pretty 
well authenticated piece of history both as to time and number of 
successive rulers recognized therein, and one which might be 
thought a fair indicator as to the ancient average length of reign. 
As mentioned above Africanus gives us 56 names from Menes down 
to the end of his old 12th dynasty, all inclusive, against the 38 in 
Eratosthenes' list. Would the Papyrus have meant to count in 54 
out of the 56 names given in Africanus, as represented by the 
34+20 in those of its Fragments considered " certain? " If so and 
we add the 54 of Africanus to the 50 from the end of the 12th 
dynasty to the Macedonian conquest and then the 17 or 18 we find 
for that supremacy we shall have 54+50+18=122, which is 3 names 
more than we reckon in the Papyrus. But we have noticed 
above that there are some names lacking on the Papyrus Frag- 
ments which we found to correspond with our list of 38 names 
and it is quite possible we may have reckoned in one too many for 
the Ptolemaic dynasty ; so that all things considered our Papyrus 
monument seems to match our history pretty well. And so we can 
begin to reckon the old, the middle and the new empires not quite 
as before, but as the first embracing the 18th to the 20th dynasties, 
so called, inclusive ; the 2nd embracing the 21st to 31st inclusive; 
and the new empire being that of the Macedonians from 332 B. C. 
to, say, the Christian era. Or keeping, if we wish, the Macedo- 



106 bunsen's captions. 

nian and the last Persian dynasty out of view we can still, in the 
face of all facts adduced, concoct in our mind some distinction in 
the old Egyptian empire, so as by hook or by crook to yet walk 
abreast in the hitherto deemed respectable company of Africanus, 
Eusebius, Syncellus, etc. 

Now, in regard to the systems of those who supposed a Middle 
or Hyksos Empire to have existed for a longer or shorter period, I 
may say that those men have a good deal to say about a dynasty 
they call the 12th, and about certain kings they call Osortesen, etc., 
which they turn into Sesotris and connect with that or some other 
dynasty. Wilkinson, in his system, supposes Joseph to have been 
inEgj'ptthe time of his Osortesen I., putting his time atabout 170(5 
B. C, while Champollion and Rosellin put the time of that Sesor- 
tesen in 2082 B. C. ; and Bunsen's time for Joseph's elevation to 
power by the same Sesortesen is 2755, and of Jacob's arrival in 
Egypt about 2747 B. C. As said before he supposed the Hyksos 
to have left Egypt in about 1542 B. C, and the Israelites to have 
then entered into a state of bondage for 215 years, so that his ex- 
odus would take place in (1541 — 215) = 1326 years B. C. approx- 
imately. Bunsen has his volumes replete with captious, many of 
them being of rather a turgid or grandiloquent order. One of 
those relating to the subject under consideration is as follows : " The 
immigration of the Israelites into Egypt did not take place under 
the Hyksos but under the Pharaohs, namely, under the Sesortosidse, 
and, indeed, under Sesortosis I." This, you will say, is talking 
pretty definitely as to what he supposed happened over 2700 years 
B. C. Another heading relative to the same subject is as follows : 
"The number 215 is the measure of the period of bondage or of 
the last section of the sojourn ia Egypt." (Egypt III. 329, 331). 

In connection with this subject I give you as follows in tabulated 
form the idea of Wilkinson and of Col. Felix, who directly con- 
nected the 12th dynasty with the 18th so-called, placing their foun- 
dation mainly in the monumental research : — 

felix, 1828 (1830). Wilkinson, 1828 (1835 and 1837). 

17th Dynasty of the Osortesen : 16th and 17th Dynasties: altogether 

7 Kings. 7 Kings. 

XVI. 

1. Osortesen I. 1. Osortesen I., 43d year 1740 B. C. 

(Joseph in Egypt B. C. 170U). 

2. Ammoneith — Thota I. 2. Amuni — Amumeneit I. 1835: 

(Amun — m — gori I). 

3. Ammoneith — Thota II. 3. Amuni II. (1835, Amun — m — gori). 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 



107 



4. Osortesen II. 

5. Osortesen III. 

6. Ammoneith — Thota III. 

7. Ammoneith — Thota IV. 



XVII. 

4. (1) Osortesen II. 

5. (2) Siphtep, also Osirtesen III. 

(1835: Nofritep). 14th year. 

6. (3) Amuni (Amun — m — gori, 1835) 

III., 41st year. 

7. (4) Name destroyed, only the pre- 

aomen known. B. C. 1580. 



Felix, as you see, arranged these seven names into a 17th dy- 
nasty; Wilkinson into a 16th and a 17th arbitrarily. What some 
consider to have been the family name of the Tuthmoses Felix 
translated Ammoneith — Thota, Wilkinson Ammon — in — Gori. 
They correspond with Africanus in having seven rulers for this 
house, but theirs are supposed seven males, the last of his is a fe- 
male. The names do not seem exactly to correspond to the last 
six or seven of the series of Eratosthenes and yet they bear some 
resemblance to them. It is possible they may not stand exactly in 
their proper order, as in Felix and Wilkinson's arrangement. 

While Felix and the Duke of Northumberland were traveling to- 
gether in Egypt they discovered a name which they deciphered as 
Osortasen upon an obelisk which appeared to them of more ancient 
date than the times of the Ramessides. While on the same tour 
they discovered at Beni-hassen a series of kings, four in number, 
two Osortasens and two they supposed to belong to the same race, 
which they read Amuneith-Thota. The prenomens on this series 
they supposed corresponded with those of the immediate predeces- 
sors of the 18th dynasty upon the Tablet of Abydos. In such ways 
were names discovered upon different monuments which they sup- 
posed to be the same with certain names upon the tablets. 

Differing tabulations appeared of those names in the progress 
of time, those of Champollion and Eossellini being found to corre- 
spond with each other and those of Felix and Wilkinson, on the 
other hand, not to differ much. Wilkinson, it is plain, tried to 
square his system with his knowledge of the Scriptural history of 
the Jews. Bunsen, however, in making the Exodus to take place 
in 1326 B. C. or thereabouts differs from Usher's chonology very 
considerably and from Wilkinson, who agrees with Usher. 

In regard to the existence of a Hyksos Period, as so called, Lep- 
sius, in looking around among the monuments of Thebes, thought 
he observed certain indications in some of them which pointed to 
an age of disorder and misrule as having existed. In the temple 
palace of Karuak, for example, whose erection is ascribed to the 



108 HTKSOS PERIOD. 

first Osortesen, he saw indications which led him to conclude that, 
between the time of the building of the most ancient portion of it 
and the subsequent additions, there had intervened a period of 
desolation which he supposed, as did Bunsen, must have been the 
Hyksos period. This he thought to be the more remarkable from 
the style of the columns in the said Osortesen 'a reign and that of 
the other known Egyptian buildings. Doubtless this wa8 one of 
the works on which Sesostria the Great employed the foreign 
artisans he brought into the country with him after his expeditiors. 
Lepsius, indeed, thought those so-called Osortesena to have be- 
longed to that closing period of the Old Empire called the 12th 
dynasty, which would correspond to either the 20th or the 5th dyn- 
asty as in my arrangement. 

The sum of the reigns of those kings of the 12th dynasty as well 
as the names of its last two he supposed he had correctly made out 
in the Turin Papyrus and so much of the remains of particular 
kings were registered as not to leave him in doubt as to how many 
of those kings were registered. From all this Lepsius inferred 
that the sign which had hitherto been read User, Oser, must be 
pronounced Sesor, Seser, inasmuch as the forma Sesonchosia and 
Sesostria in Manetho could not be explained upon any other princi- 
ple. Previously he had discovered in the Tablet of Abytlos not 
only the family name Amenemes, heretofore unknown, but the 
name of another king which he tabulated Sebeknefru ; so that he 
thought he had now discovered names for all the kinga of this 
dynasty that were represented in the Papyrus and in Manetho. 
Lastly, after he had performed a journey to Turin for the purpose 
he came off satisfied he had substantiated a before doubtful number 
in the Papyrus, which made everything now more clear to his mind 
with respect to the dates of those reigns. 

The 23 names in Fragments I. and II. of our Papyrus correspond, 
at least aa to number, with Africanus' 18th and 19th dynasties, 
which are as follows : — 

XVJIIth Dynasty. 

1. Amos. 

2. Chebros. 

3. Amenophis. 

4. Amensis. 

5. Misphres. 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OP ANCIENT EGYPT. 109 



6. 

7. 


Misphraginouthosis. 
Touthmosis. 


8. 


Amenophis. 


9. 


Oros. 


10. 


Acherres. 


11. 


Rathos. 


12. 


Chebres. 


13. 


Acherres. 


14. 


Armesses. 


15. 


Ramesses. 


16. 


Ameuophath ; reigned total 263 years 

(the exact number given by Afri 




canus to his first dynasty, so called) 




XIXth Dynasty. 


1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 


20 " 


5. 




6. 




7. 






Total 224 " 



the exact number of years reigned contemporaneously by the 
second and third dynasties after they had separated from each 
other on the death of Amenophis III. But I have explained to 
you farther back how there came to be a 1st, 2nd and 3rd 
dynasties ; how that the 4th dynasty ruled over Egypt only 
in the persons of the rulers of the 6th ; how that the 5th dynasty 
succeeded to the 6th from the reason that the latter constituted the 
real, personal 4th, so far as that was properly a dynasty, which 
caused that the 5th succeeded to or continued the 4th ; and how 
that all the other dynasties, so called, from the 6th to the 12th, 
arose most probably from the names of dynasties having been 
applied to some genealogieallines of the distinguished kings of the 
12th dynasty, so called, in an honorary way, the numbers of which 
lines only have survived in the books. The 6th dynasty, then, in its 
connection with the 4th, so called, it is quite important to under- 



110 SUCCESSIONS. 

stand and no less important to understand it in connection with the 
dynasty which succeeds it. 

I will here, therefore, add, in connection with what has gone 
before in relation to these matters, that Othoes, the first name in 
Africanus' 6th dynasty, is, in the old Gaelic tongue (which last is 
a safe genealogical guide in this Egyptian line), Aedh, which is 
read sometimes, briefly, Ai, and is the same with Schaigh, was the 
father of Raineses — Sesostris, the Great, and the founder of a new 
dynasty, that which succeeded to the 3rd, so called. This Othoes, 
who was the same with Cheneres, the last of the 2nd dynasty, so 
called, being a king of Egypt, shows you that not only several of 
the first names, but also the last name in the list of the 2nd dynasty, 
in Africanus, were of kings of Egypt, and so that the title of dy- 
nasty for it was not altogether a misnomer, nor given altogether 
in an honorary way : Secondly, this Othoes or Cheneres being the 
same with Souris, the first of Africanus' 4th dynasty, and being a 
king of Egypt, as the monuments prove, shows you that not only 
the last two names, but the first of the 4th dynasty, so called, were 
of rulers of Egypt, so that in the case of the 4th, also, the title 
dynasty is not altogether a misnomer nor applied altogether as an 
honorary title to a genealogical list. 

The second name in the list of the 6th dynasty is Phios, which is 
equal to Phis, as, for example, in Memphis, properly Men-phis, 
that is, Men-Seph or Men-Seth for Menes. This Phis or Seth, 
which last is Aedh with the consonant S prefixed, and spelled Aigh 
or Schaigh, variously in the old tongue, was for'the Armais of the 
old lists, which in the original Egyptian hieroglyphs is the same 
with Barneses, that is, Armais, Armeses and Raineses are but vari- 
ations in the modern languages of the one hieroglyphical name. 

The third name in Africanus 6th dynasty is Methosouphis, a 
female name, and corresponding to the Athotis which, in our regular 
monumental list, comes next after Schaigh. The name is made up 
of the components, Moth or Ameth, also 6pelled Ma, the goddess 
of Justice, which in the Greek is Themis (root am — the or eth), 
and which we often see a statue representing blindfolded, M'ith a 
scale in her hand, on the domes of houses of Justice at the present 
day. The names Phios and Methosouphis here seem to have 
changed place, as compared with how they stand in other lists. It 
appears plain from the relative positions in tho list that Armais, 
independently of the story of his viceroyship, given in Josephus, 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. Ill 

as from Manetho, was an elder brother of Rameses, the Great ; and 
I had judged the sister to have been older than Armais, but here 
she stands in the list after hirn. We have a similar case in the 
names Sebercheres and Thamphthis, supposed husband and wife, 
at the end of the 5th dynasty in its connection with the 6th, in which 
I have thought it might have been a question of precedence in the 
mind of the compiler, which caused him to put the husband's name 
before the wife's in the list. 

The fourth name in the list of Africanus' 6th dynasty is Phiops, 
which is the monumental Apep, an equivalent to Seth, Seph or 
Teph (Tvpho), and is here for Rameses — Sesostris. 

The fifth name is Menthesouphis, the same with Amenophis, son 
of Rameses the Great, of the regular lists; while the sixth and last 
name in this dynasty is Nitokris, who is the queen Tasesar, of my 
regular and monumental list. If Lepsius were correct in his 
deductions then this lady was sister of Amenophis, instead of his 
wife, as given in some lists under the name Nitokris: and, Thus, be- 
ing a daughter of Rameses the Great, and it being evident from all 
the histories that she held the throne in her own right and left at 
least two sons after her who occupied it in their turn, it is quite as 
evident that she was married and that her husband or son begun 
the new dynasty, which directly succeeded to the son of Amenophis. 
Would Tasesar have been " sister and wife?" 

When, it is somewhere said that the tablet of Karnak, for exam- 
ple, traces back genealogy to Menes through such and such dynasties 
and that of Abydos, through such and such other dynasties, it is seen 
from what has gone before that the meaning may be that they both 
trace back through the same, or a line of genealogy through differ- 
ent men, for example, of the same dynasty. The markings of the 
tablets have done some service in enabling us to straighten out the 
subject of the dynasties genealogically ; but from the partially 
obliterated condition in which these tablets were found it is evi- 
dent' that the meaning of most of the symbols, which as yet 
partially appeared, could only be made out approximatively. But 
although these remarks are not concerned in the genealogy of the 
husband of Queen Tasesar, for that appears plainly enough given 
in the line of the dynasties from Menes to him, still I would suggest 
it as very probable that he was one of those scions of the royal 
stock of Menes, who had his residence at Elephantina, in Upper 
Egypt. By this the dynasty would have goteu its name of Ele- 



112 SUCCESSIONS. 

phantin, as we have gathered from some source another dynasty, 
called the 3rd, got its title of Memphite from its founder having 
bis residence at Memphis before he came to the throne. There 
seems no doubt whatever that there were families of the stock of 
Menes settled at Memphis, Elephantiiia, Herakleopolis and else- 
where as well as at Thebes, who were of considerable importance in 
the way of wealth and political influence, who continued to be con- 
nected by marriage and otherwise with the ruling dynasts. 

Now, our Sethos I. is called in the old histories son of Amen- 
ophis and so grandson of Sesostris and in the same authorities he 
is made to begin a new dynasty, which appears unreasonable. For 
how can it be said that a man whose father has been sole sovereign 
of a country, when he has himself attained to the sovereignty has 
begun a new dynasty ? But this Sethos immediately succeeds to 
queen Tasesar and begins a new dynasty, which makes it more prob- 
able that the division in the list appears in the wrong place, that 
Sethos, the son of Amenophis, belonged to the preceding dynasty 
and that the new dynasty, called the 19th, began with the husband 
or son of Tasesar. 

This Sethos is called son of Amenophis not only in the histories 
but in the legends ; for you have read farther back how that 
the King Amenophis, after he had greatly oppressed a large body 
of the people by compelling them to work in the quarries and at 
other public works, at length decided to set them free ; how 
that having been liberated these people congregated to a very 
large number at the city of Avaris (Abaris, the city of the He- 
brews ) ; how that they fortified the place and organized a government 
of their own ; how that, upon this being done, they invited their 
friends, the Hebrews, from Jerusalem and Judaea to come and 
assist them in conquering for themselves the Kingdom of Egpyt, 
which having attained, would be a recompense to them for the labor 
and oppression they had undergone ; how that the invited people 
came to Avaris in great force from Jerusalem and, having joined 
arms with their friends there and effected a complete organization 
of their joint forces, they overran Egypt, took possession of its 
administration and continued to hold the same for the space of 
thirteen years; you have seen how that during this time Ameno- 
phis and his vast army were absent in Ethiopia, patiently waiting a 
(to them) more favorable turn in home affairs and meantime sub- 
sisting on the provisions furnished them in great abundance, to- 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 113 

gether with comfortable quarters, by the then King of Ethiopia ; 
how that Amenopbis, on his departure for Ethiopia, with an army of 
300,000 men and his Egyptian gods all gathered about him, left a 
sou of his named Sethos, then five years old, with some of his friends 
iu a cave to be kept for him till his return; how that on his return 
to Egypt, the boy Sethos had grown to be 18 years old and greatly 
assisted his father in reconquering his patrimony out of the hands 
of the Hebrews. Thus the foregoing ; but another version has it 
that Sethos was not born at the time of his father's departure for 
Ethiopia but that his mother, pregnant with him, was left in a cave 
with some friends so that on the return of Amenophis the boy could 
have been scarcely 13 years old at which time he could not have 
assisted his father much to his return in the face of an established 
government. In the former account, however, he is said to have 
greatly assisted his father in his return and in his ridding the coun- 
try of the foreign government therein established and in his chasing 
the Hebrews out of the country even to the bounds of Syria. 

Now it is evident that Sesostris,the father of this Amenophis, had 
conquered and inflicted great losses not only upon Ethiopia but 
upon Phoenicia, Syria and the adjoining countries ; and if either 
one of these nations, assisted by a revolt of a large body of mal- 
contents in Egypt, succeeded in conquering the country and holding 
it for 13 years, it would give rise to such a state of things as we 
seem to have represented here, the rise of a new dynasty which 
continued for 13 years ; and if at that time there were a foreign 
domination of Egypt for 13 years, the Ethiopians were more likely 
than any other nation except the Palestinians to have possessed its 
government. 

It is plain to my mind, though, that the whole story of the 
Ethiopian connection at this time may have arisen from the intro- 
duction of a new dynasty, the Southern or Elephantine, or old 
5th, so called, iu the person of the husband or son of Tasesar. 
Of course it is well known, historically, that Sesostris accom- 
plished much public work for Egypt by the means of foreign labor, 
that of the prisoners, doubtless largely of the skillful kind, whom 
he brought into the country after his campaigns ; but the whole 
story of the Hebrews conquering the country at this time and 
administering its government for thirteen years hath an exceed- 
ingly legendary aspect. 

The seven kings of the so called Nineteenth Dynasty are evi- 

8— c 



114 21ST DYNASTY. 

dently the seven Diodorus specifies as being of little account, 
excepting one, whom he calls Nilus. Herodotus represents the 
good old time as ending with the Arnenophis, whom he calls Rein- 
phis ; and both he and Diodorus represent the builders of the pyra- 
mids as having succeeded these seven kings ; so that no reason- 
able doubt can exist that we have correctly pointed them out in the 
20th dynasty, so called, restored, and that the builders of the 
largest pyramids, at least, were of the 5th dynasty nominally con- 
sidered. 

The following from Africanus' 21st dynasty : 7 Tanite Kings. 

Years. 

1. Smendes (Code A, Smedes) 2(5 

2. Psousenes 46 

3. Nephercheres (Nefru-Kera) 4 

4. Amenophthis 9 

5. Osokhor 6 

6. Psinakes 9 

7. Psousemes (Code A, Sousennes) 14 

Sum total 114 

None of these names correspond in form to those of the build- 
ers of the pyramids as given by Diodorus and Herodotus; nor do 
those of the seven of the next dynasty, 22nd, nor those of any of 
the succeeding dynasties ; so that we may rest satisfied that the 
great pyramids were built by the third house of the Ramessides, 
so called, of the old 12th dynasty. The name Nephercheres means 
the good king; it is found as No. 3 of the old 5th dynasty, and 
No. 1 of the third. Independently of any idea as to Egypt's 
being possessed for thirteen years by the Hebrews, it appears plain 
that the compulsory labors of a portion of that people among 
others were used by Sesostris and his son, Arnenophis, in the 
accomplishment of works of a public character. But at this time 
the Hebrews would be regarded as Egyptian Indigence, the time 
referred to being about 280 years anterior to the founding of the 
great pyramid by the third king of the old 12th dynasty. The 
circumstances of the case would imply the Hebrews to have been 
only among the number of the oppressed, who were undoubtedly, 
for the most part, captives of war. In the labors performed at 
this time there is no mention made of the pyramids. The inter- 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 115 

val of time between this Amenophis and the building of the pyra- 
mids was too great to allow us to suppose that there were any 
stone then prepared at the quarries for those structures. From 
Menes to the first }'ear of Rameses the Great, there intervened 570 
years ; from the death of Rameses to the accession of Cheops, 230 
years; and from the death of Cheops till Herodotus' visit to 
Egypt there passed all of 700 years. Cheops, the builder of the 
great pyramid which was one of the oldest of the pyramids, per- 
haps the oldest of all, was the thirteenth successor on the throne 
of Amenophis, son of Sesostris the Great. They were public 
works which were done, but of a different character from pyra- 
mids. Speaking, however, in reference to the second predecessor 
of Cheops, the eleventh successor of this Amenophis, and to Che- 
ops himself, Herodotus says : " I was also informed by the same 
priests that, till the reign of Rhampsinitus, Egypt was remarkable 
not only for its abundance, but for its excellent laws. Cheops, 
who succeeded this prince," (Cheops was his second successor) 
" degenerated into the extremest profligacy of conduct. He barred 
the avenues to every temple, and forbade the Egyptians to offer 
sacrifices. He proceeded next to make them labor servilely for 
himself. Some he compelled to hew stones in the quarries of the 
Arabian mountains and drag them to the banks of the Nile ; others 
were appointed to receive them in vessels and transport them to a 
mountain of Libya," etc. He is here speaking of the preparation 
for the building of the great pyramid. In the study of the history 
of a people, the time spaces, >and the changes which they are 
likely to bring about are always to be closely observed. The age 
of Amenophis, the son of Sesostris, was considerably different from 
that of Cheops, and the age of the latter considerably different 
from that of Herodotus, in Egypt. 

You must have noticed that in the fragmentary way in which he 
dealt with the subject that while the average reign Africanus allows 
to his kings of the 18th and 21st dynasties is only a little over 16 
years in each case, the average reign for his 19th dynasty is 32 
years ; but we already know that his 18th dynasty really consists 
oi two, the 1st and 3rd, and that he expressed only the years, 2(13, 
pertaining to the first of these. As said before, for his 20th dy- 
nasty he simply states " 12 Diospolitan (Theban) Kings in 135 
years," without giving any names, or any other information. For 
this dynasty Eusebius gives 182 years (245 being given in brack- 



116 EARLY KACES. 

ets). Lepsius, in his systematizing, gives it 185. But one of 
these sums may be said to be as nearly correct as the other ; for 
the period is that of the last twelve kings of the List of Eratos- 
thenes, to which that author gives 340 years, being an average 
reign of 28^. Double of the period, as given by Eusebius, would 
be not far from that given by Eratosthenes, which doubtless, is 
about correct. The giving of only 135 or even 185 to so many 
reigns as four or five reigns sometimes exhaust, and the giving to 
the old 18th and 19th dynasties an aggregate of years only a little 
over half of what they reigned * was undoubtedly meant to obscure 
the subject of the history at this juncture of it in subservience to 
some vain notion or concoction of the mind in an endeavor to lay 
the base for establishing some historic religious origin, that is, on 
paper, a notion which was worse than nothing and vanity and 
plainly shows the effeminacy and iniquity of mind of those who 
concocted and tried to establish it. Is not a Schemite or a Cushite 
all the same as to race, whether he have been born at the sources 
of the Nile or of the Euphrates or Jaxartes, on the Mountains of 
Kurdistan, in the plains of Chaldaea, in the plains of Dongola or 
Meroe, all of which places these races inhabited in what may be 
called the mythic or beclouded ages of history? Even in the 
Egyptian language the name of Ethopia is Kesh or Cush as well as 
it is Cush in Kurdistan in Gedrosia and Caramania and Cuth in 
Persia and Chaldaea. In fact the whole fragmentary exhibit of the 
18th, 19th and 20th dynasties so called, as found in Africanus and 
Eusebius, tells its own story on its face, namely, that its object is 
to obscure the whole subject of the history and make believe a 
state of things to have been which could have been so only 
allegorically. 

While, as I have before noticed, Diodorus agrees in general with 
Herodotus in regard to the time of the building of the largest pyra- 
mid, yet it appears that he had himself no settled ideas on that 
subject; for in another place he gives it as his opinion that " Ar- 
mseus built the first of the three great pyramids, Amosis the 



* 263+224=487, which if multiplied by 2=974. Then 1076 years, the whole 
period to the end of the 20th dynasty, so called, minus 974=102 years. If to this 
last number we add only 33 years, or one generation, we shall have 135 years, the 
number Africanus allows his old unexpressed 20th dynasty to have reigned, show- 
ing us plainly that only a little over half of the number of years really reigned are 
by him given to the 18th and 19th dynasties, together, and more than one genera- 
tion less than half the number reigned by his so-called 20th dynasty. 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 117 

second, and Inaron the third, which some ascribed to Rhodopis." 
The name of Armais, which was that of the brother of Sesostris, 
would put the building of the great pyramid all of three centuries 
before the time at which Herodotus put it and at which it was built. 
This Armais, whom the Greeks called Danaus (Da-Naus the ship), is 
said in the tradition to have settled an Egyptian colony in Greece. If 
he were such a man as some historians picture him to have been, one 
would not suspect that he undertook or carried out any such a work 
as the building of a pyramid ; and it appears evident that the other 
two, to whom Diodorus ascribes the erection of the other two great 
pyramids, lived at a period by far too late for them to have had 
anything to do with the building of the pyramids. Amosis, the 
friend of the Greeks, lived not more than a generation or two be- 
fore the Persian invasion. And the Inaron referred to is doubtless 
that one called Inarus, the Libyan, " the son of Psammetichus," 
who, in connection with Amyrtreus of Sais and the Greeks, revolted 
from Artaxerses in about the year 460 B. C. This man had, how- 
ever, only four or five years of i - eign afterwards, which did not 
allow him sufficient time to have built any pyramid, if he had not 
done so before. This was not far from the time at which Herodo- 
tus visited Egypt, when the pyramids were already old structures. 
Lucan (Phars. ix. 155) takes notice to this and says : " Diodorus 
(464) says some attribute the second pyramid to Amosis ; the first 
to Armceus ; and the third to Inaron as well as to Rhodope." 

Now it is noticeable that those who get from some Greeks the 
credit of having built the great pyramids we reall Egyptians who 
had been not only very friendly to the Greeks, but were very pe- 
culiarly connected with them, and it is reasonable to suppose that 
they would be more inclined to attribute to those rather than to 
others something of a noble and extraordinary character. Speak- 
ing of the time of the building of the third pyramid Herodotus 
himself says: " Some of the Greeks erringly believe this to have 
been erected by Rhodopis, the courtesan, but they do not seem to 
me even to know who this Rhodopis was ; if they had they never 
could have ascribed to her the building of a pyramid, produced at 
the expense of several thousand talents. Besides this Rhodopis 
lived at a different period, in the time not of Mykerinus, but of 
Amasis and many years after the monarchs who had erected the 
pyramids." 

In his summing up of the ancient history of Egypt Diodorus re- 



118 EGYPTIAN SAGES. 

counts in succession the ancient Egyptian sages and legislators (c. 
94seq.): — 

I. Muevis (Menes or Menphis) who after the dominion of Gods 
and Heroes was the first king who gave written laws. He sue 
ceeded in persuading the people to live according to these, profess- 
ing that he had received them from Hermes. Of all kings he was 
the most magnanimous and popular. 

II. Sasuches, a sovereign of very diverse talents, enlarged the 
code of his predecessors, regulated the forms of religious worship, 
and invented geometry and astronomy, both theoretical and prac- 
tical. 

III. Sesoosis, the great warrior, legislated for military affairs in 
general, but particularly for the warrior caste. 

IV. Bocchoris, all matters connected with the duties and priv- 
ileges of the sovereign were treated by him, also laws concerning 
treaties. He was of a delicate constitution and avaricious beyond 
all his predecessors. 

V. Amasis, the friend and counsellor of Polycrates ; — to the 
governors and general administration of the nomes his enactments 
related. 

VI. Darius, on account of his wisdom, virtue and respect for the 
sacred books and ordinances of the Egyptians, was during his life- 
time honored as a god and at his death was ranked among the 
most upright princes." 

As far as he goes Diodorus appears, in the main, not to disagree 
with Herodotus his arrangement and order being about the same ; 
but he is more particular chronologically, meaning to give the num- 
ber of generations between points, etc. But it should be remem- 
bered that the chronology of Herodotus really commences with 
Psammetichus, who became king about 640 B. C, or about two 
centuries before that historian visited Egypt. In his reckoning by 
generations however he is found to have been pretty correct in his 
conclusions. In both historians the heroes and some of the dy- 
nasties of the old and new empire appear to have been confounded ; 
but Diodorus has remarked that the history of Sesoosis (Sesostris) 
for example, is related in very different ways. 

The Tablet of Karnak. 

The very interesting monument called the Tablet of Karnak was 
discovered by Mr. Burton at the southeast angle of the temple- 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 119 

palace erected by Barneses II., the 28th of my list. When first 
discovered the Tablet was in a tolerable state of preservation and 
published by the discoverer in his Excerpta Hieroglyphica in 1824. 
Wilkinson, again, in his Materia Hieroglyphica, printed at Cairo in 
1828, gave the series in a more complete manner ; but to Lepsius, 
assisted by Dr. Mill, of Cambridge, pertained the labor of explain- 
ing it in a more satisfactory manner than had been done before. 

In regard to the monument itself, let us imagine a tolerably spa- 
cious square chamber, having one small door in the center of one 
of its sides. On entering this door four rows of figures in calcare- 
ous sandstone, representing kings in a sitting posture, one above 
the other, present themselves to view. The kings are seated on 
thrones, whose backs at a central point, exactly opposite to the door, 
touch one another; so that, in each of the four rows, one-half of the 
figures have their faces turned toward the left, the other half turned 
toward the right. With one or two exceptions, where the number 
is but seven, the rows in each subdivision contain eight figures. 
The first three figures of each subdivision are on the wall opposite 
the entrance, which has, consequently, in all, six in each entire 
row ; the other five or four are on the side wall contiguous to it on 
the right and left. At the end of each side wall in front, opposite 
to the sitting kings, stands twice repeated, above and below the fig- 
ure in large proportions of Mares (Ra Mer Nefru, the good King 
Mares, No. 28 of Fragment III, Papyrus) represented in the act 
of offering sacrifices. Each figure of Rameses is exactly equal in 
height to two of the four rows, so that one of them is exactly op- 
posite to the two upper, the other to the two lower rows. There 
stand before them the tables of sacrifice, with offerings thereon, 
occupying sometimes more, sometimes fewer pannelsofthe rows of 
kings. The rows, therefore, contain on the left, 31 (8+8+7+8) 
and on the right 30 (8+8+7 + 7) figures. Each king is holding out 
his right hand to receive the offerings and over his head is his royal 
ring or shield with the customary imperial titles. In one hand, 
R:uneses himself has the sign of life, the so-called key of the Nile ; 
with the other he presents to the enthroned kings the gifts which 
are spread before him on the table. As to the offices of the persons 
to whom the offerings are presented all doubt is meant to be re- 
moved by an inscription appended to the right of each figure in the 
following words : 

" The Royal offerings 
To the Kings of the Upper and Lower Country." 



120 TABLET OF KAKNAK. 

The erection of this tablet has been by some ascribed to Tuth- 
mosis III. ; but Salvolini and others have correctly read the name 
Mares, Mer-Ra, beloved of Sol. To Rameses II., and his sons, 
whose names stand in my list the 21st to perhaps the 24th in suc- 
cession from Tuthmosis III. are fairly to be ascribed those many 
campaigns and works which are wont to be ascribed in the histories 
to the latter. It is not necessary even to imagine that all of the 61 
figures on the Tablet represent kings ; family groups, doubtless, to 
a limited degree, find place, the most renowned members of the 
family, even though not kings, being sometimes deemed worthy of 
representation. Bunsen finds that the succession on this Tablet is 
largely through men, who were not kings, but whom he calls 
dukes (Erpa). This must be so, namely, that both sides of the 
royal house is represented to the degree deemed requisite by the 
erecters of the Tablet, seeing there is a collection of figures amount- 
ing in number to 61, and the renowned Mares is, according to Dio- 
dorus, only 28th in succession from Menes, these two inclusive, 
which is proved to be correct by the place of Mares, No. XXVIIL 
of the li st of Eratosthenes, and by the Turin Papyrus list wherein 
you will find the first Ra Mer Nefru, or " the good Merra," to be in 
exactly the 28th place. Now, it is thought fr orn the researches of 
Lejisius and others that Rameses II. was succeeded on the throne by 
two or three of his sons, the one after the other, and while he is, 
himself, the first Ra Mer or Mares of the Papyrus list, you will find 
by referring to that list again that his son and immediate successor, 
No. 29, is called Ra Mer Hept, " the devoted to Merra," and his third 
successor, No 31 is called Ra Mer Ankh-Anka. In Lepsius his son 
and immediate successor, No. 29, is called, as to his name, Rameses, 
Mri Aran Hk Ma ; and his third successor, No. 31, has also Mri Aran, 
as his name or title. If now you refer to No. 6 of the Papyrus list, 
which by right ought to be No. 7, yon will find the word Ankh as 
a part of the name of Tuthmosis III., which may have caused the 
name of this last-mentioned monarch to be confounded with that of 
the erecter of the Tablet of Karnak, namely, Rameses II. (called by 
others the Illrd) and his sons Rameses III. and V. as in my list. 
Now, although it is quite proper to connect the name of our Rame- 
ses II., a renowned conqueror, with his sons in the matter of the 
erection of the Tablet of Karnak still there are some considerations 
which would lead to the conclusion that the name of our Rameses 
V., No. 31 of our list, is to be directly connected with its dedica- 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 121 

tion. In the first place, the part of his name referred to as likely to 
give cause for the confounding of his name withTuthmosis III., to 
whom the erection of the Tablet has been (perhaps thus) erro- 
neously ascribed: In the second place, he is a Mares, which was the 
name properly deciphered by Salvolini and others as that of the erecter 
of the Tablet, a name which Tuthmosis III. , to whom its erec tion has 
been ascribed, did not bear. And, thirdly, our Barneses V., Mares 
Ankh, is 31st in succession from Menes, these two inclusive ; and 
the side of that Tablet, which contains the 31 figures, may reasona- 
bly be supposed to go back in the male line of the ancestors of this 
king to Menes, while the 30 figures on the other side may continue 
it beyond Menes in the male line of the Auritce or Aberamitic 
kings, a supposition which I regard as altogether more probable 
than that the one side of the Tablet should be understood as repre- 
senting the father's and the other the mother's side of the ancestry 
of the monarch back to Menes. 

Ami, besides, in our consideration as to which of the Rameses it 
was that erected this Tablet, or rather, which of the Rameses it 
was, in whose reign it was dedicated ; for, considering our Rames- 
es II. and his sons we may not be averse to the supposition that 
some of his sons with himself, considered as principal, did origin- 
ally concern themselves, to some degree, in the origination of the. 
plan and the erection of the monument : I say taking this whole 
thine into consideration it would be safe to conclude that the gen- 
eral plan may have been originated in the old age of our Rameses 
II. and that the work may have been finally accomplished and the 
monument dedicated in the reign of his third successor, Rameses V. 
called Tatcheres, i.e., King Thoth,* in Africanus' list. To origin- 
ate the plan of such a monument and execute the 61 figures with 
such fineness and completeness of finish as this must needs have 
been done, it appears to me would require more than the time of 
one generation ; but here we allow at least the time of a genera- 
tion and a half ; for while we, in effect, give to Rameses II. the 
Mares of Diodorus and Herodotus, the XXVIIIth name in the 
list of Eratosthenes, the honor of the origination of the plan and 
the erection of the monument, called the Tablet of Karnak, still 
we may consider his sons as superintending the carrying out of the 
business for him after his death, and the monument as being finally 
completed and dedicated in the reign of his third successor, Rames- 
es V. It is more than probable that some of the great accomplish- 



*Rameses=Armais=Hermes=Thothmes. Bryant's Myth. IV. 



122 TABLET OF ABYDOS. 

ments ascribed to our Rameses II. belong to some of his near suc- 
cessors. To him, for instance, is ascribed the capture of old Tyre ; 
but my reckoning makes him rather early for that event. My own 
opinion would incline to the conclusion of Rameses VII., the imme- 
diate predecessor of Cheops, who began his reigu in 1262 B.C., being 
the conqueror of Phoenicia and Tyre. Of the reign of our Rameses 
II., "the inscriptions make mention of only the 11th and 12th 
years;" but it doubtless was of many years' greater duration. He 
appears, on the whole, to have died at considerably past his middle 
life; but he is represented in some of the paintings as of a luxuri- 
ous turn, which tends to abridge the human existence ; and thus 
his sons may have had a longer tenure of his throne. The cam- 
paigns attributed to him seem to have been a succession of victo- 
ries, some of which were the result of prolonged and hard fighting. 
These accomplishments, as I say, may be safely ascribed to Rames- 
es II. and a few of his successors and his relation to the Tablet 
taken to be as I have above explained. 

The Tablet of Abydos. 

This monument, which is properly ascribed to Rameses, the 
Great, is about of eight or nine generations earlier date than that 
of Karnak. It has been adopted since its discovery as an authen- 
tic basis of hieroglyphical research and determination and as a cri- 
terion in the restoration of the old 18th and to some extent the 19th 
dynasty so called. Lepsius' copy or transcript of this Tablet has 
been found of great importance in the work of restoring the ancient 
Egyptian chronology. 

This series consists of fifty-two figures sculptured in fine limestone 
on the walls t f a chamber, now destroyed, within the temple palace, 
built or restored by Rameses the Great, in that ancient royal city 
of Abydos (supposed the same with This, from whence Menes). 
The lower part of this Tablet, comprising the legs of a deity swathed 
in bandages, is seated on a throne, holding in both hands a kukufa 
sceptre. This Lepsius restored as Osiris, who appears here as the 
Lord of the West and the Pluto of the Hades of the deceased kings. 
He is looking towards a double row of rulers (in sculpture) 26 in 
number (52 in all) who are represented seated under their rings, 
swathed like Osiris and wearing alternately the upper and lower 
portions of the Pshent, the sign of sovereignty of Upper and Lower 
Egypt. The horizontal line of hieroglyphics placed over their 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OP ANCIENT EGYPT. 123 

heads Lepsius has translated as follows : "A libation to the Lords 
of the West by the offerings of their son, the king Raineses, in his 
abode." And the two perpendicular lines of hieroglyphics on the 
right convey the response of the kings as follows: " The speech of 
the Lords of the West to their son, the creator and avenger, the 
Lord of the World, the Sun who conquers in truth; we ourselves 
elevate our arms to receive thy offering and all other good and pure 
things in thy palace ; we are renewed and perpetuated in the paint- 
ings of thy house ; we beg to approach at thy side with thee, to 
rule it like the Solar gate of the heaven where is the Sun forever." 

The last nine figures in the lower row, supposed to be the most 
ancient rulers, are entirely wanting. In the upper row the oldest 
htirteen are likewise obliterated, but the other half of the series is 
more or less preserved. It has been remarked above that there 
are 26 figures in each row, thus making 52 in all, but the last two 
of these, one on each side, represents Sesostris himself, who is 
portrayed as being alive at the dedication, in the act of offering. 

One result Lepsius arrived at from the examination of this Tablet 
was that, allowing the Sesortosida?, aforementioned, to have con- 
stituted the 12th dynasty, the intermediate dynasts, claimed by the 
Hyksos Empire theorists as having existed between their 12th and 
their 18th dynasties, were entirely wanting. But to those who still 
saw fit to hold on to the idea they had before supported of a Middle 
or Hyksos empire this meant nothing more than that the kings of 
their Hyksos Period, which they maintained were represented to 
the number of the 30 on the right side of the Tablet of Karnak, 
found no place on the Tablet of Abydos. 

It becomes me, therefore, to give you here the principal data 
upon which the theory of a Hyksos Period or Middle Empire, so 
called, is built up. 

Data as to a Hyksos Empire. 

This is derived to us through Josephu s, as he claims from 
Manetho. In his Treatise Against Apion (Bk. I. 14, 15), Jose- 
phus brings forward arguments from various sources to prove the 
origin and antiquity of the Jewish nation and in this he proceeds 
as follows : — 

"Now, this Manetho, in the Second Book of his Egyptian His- 
tory, writes concerning us in the following manner. I will set 
down his very words, as if I were to bring the identical man him- 



124 HYKSOS PERIOD. 

self into court for a witness : ' There was a king of ours, whose name 
was Tiniaus. Under him it came to pass, I know not how, that 
God was averse to us, and there came after a surprising manner 
men of ignoble origin out of the Eastern parts and had boldness 
enough to make an expedition into our country and with ease sub- 
dued it by force, yet without our hazarding a battle with them. 
So, when they had gotten those who governed us under their power 
they afterwards burnt down our cities and demolished the temples 
of the Gods, and used all the inhabitants after a most barbarous 
manner ; nay, some they slew and led their children and their 
wives into slavery. At length they made one of themselves king, 
whose name was Salatis ; he also lived at Memphis and made both 
the Upper and Lower countries pay tribute and placed garrisons 
at points which were the most proper for them. He chiefly aimed 
at securing the Eastern frontier, as foreseeing that the Assyrians, 
who had then the greatest power, would be desirous of that king- 
dom and invade them ; and as he found in the Sethroite Nome a 
city very proper for his purpose, and which lay upon the Bubastic 
channel, but with regard to a certain theologic notion was called 
Avaris, this he rebuilt and made very strong by the walls he built 
about it and by a most numerous garrison of 240,000 armed men, 
whom he put into it to keep it. Thither Salatis came in summer 
time partly to gather his corn and pay his soldiers their wages and 
partly to exercise his armed men and thereby to terrify foreigners. 
When this man had reigned thirteen years there reigned after him 
another, whose name was Beon, for forty-four years, after him 
reigned another, named Apachnas, thirty-six years and seven 
months ; after him Apophis reigned sixty-one years and then Jo- 
nias fifty years and one month; after all these reigned Assis forty- 
nine years and two months. And these six were the first rulers 
among them who were all along making war with the Egyptians 
and were very desirous gradually to eradicate their race. This 
whole nation was styled Hyksos, that is, Shepherd Kings ; for the 
first syllable Hyk, according to the sacred dialect denotes a king, 
as is Sos a shepherd — but this according to the ordinary dialect ; 
and of these is compounded Hyksos; but some say that these peo- 
ple were Arabians." " Now," says Josephus, " in another copy, 
' it is said that this word does not denote kings, but, on the con- 
trary, denotes captive shepherds, and this on account of the 
particle Hyk ; for that Hyk with the aspiration in the Egyptian 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 125 

tongue again denotes shepherds and that expressly also ; and this 
to me seems the more probable opinion and more agreeable to 
ancient history." He then represents Manetho as speaking 
again as follows : "These people whom we have before named 
kings and called Shepherds also and their descendants kept posses- 
sion ofEgypt for 511 years. Thatafter these the kings of Thebes and 
of the other parts of Egypt arose against the Shepherds and that a 
terrible and long war ensued between them. That in the time of a 
king whose name was Misphragmouthosis (Euseb. Misphragou- 
thosis) the Shepherds were subdued and driven out of other parts 
ofEgypt, but were shut up in a place that contained ten thousand 
acres; this place was named Avaris; Manetho says that the Shep- 
herds built a wall around all this place, which was a large and 
strong wall and this in order to keep all their possessions and their 
prey within a place of strength, but that Thuthmosin (Euseb. 
Thmouthosin) the son of Misphragmuthosis made an attempt to take 
them by force and by siege with four hundred and eighty thousand 
men to lie round about them ; but that upon his despair of taking 
the place by that siege they came to a composition with them that 
they should leave Egypt and go without any harm to be done 
them, whithersoever they would ; and that after this agreement 
was arrived at they went away with their whole families and 
effects, not fewer in number than 240,000, and took their journey 
from Egypt through the wilderness for Syria ; but that as they 
were in fear of the Assyrians, who had theu the dominion over 
Asia, they built a city in that country which is now called Judaea, 
and that large enough to contain this great multitude of men, and 
named it Jerusalem. 

Now in another book Manetho says that this nation thus called 
Shepherds were also, called captives in their sacred books. And 
this account of his is the truth, for keeping of sheep was the employ- 
ment of our forefathers in the most ancient times and leading a 
nomadic life they were on this account called Shepherds. Nor, was it 
without reason that the Egyptian historians have called them captives, 
inasmuch as one of our ancestors, Joseph, told the King of Egypt 
that he was a captive and afterwards sent for his brethren to come 
into Egypt, the King consenting to provide for them. But about 
these matters I shall make a more exact inquiry elsewhere," the 
result of which promise is not now extant. 

" But now," he proceeds,"! shall produce the Egyptians as 









126 RAMESES II. 

witnesses to the antiquity of our nation. I shall, therefore, again 
bring in Manetho and what he says concerning the order of the 
times, he thus writes: "After the departure of the people of 
the Shepherds from Egypt he who effected their exodus, 
namely, King Tethmosis (Aram. Sethmosis,) reigned afterwards 
twenty-five years and four months and then died, after him his son 
Chebron, administered the government for thirteen years; after 
whom Amenophis twenty years and seven months. Then his sister 
Amesses (Arm. Ameuses) twenty-one years and nine months ; after 
her came Mephres for twelve years and nine months; and then 
Mephramouthosis for twenty-five years and ten months; after him 
was Tuthmosis (Thtnosis) nine years and eight months, - after him 
came Amenophis for thirty years and ten months ; then Orus for 
thirty-six years and five months ; then followed his daughter 
Aceuchres for twelve years and one month; her brother Rathotis, 
then for nine years ; then was Acenchres twelve years and five 
months; and then another Acenchres twelve years and three 
months; then succeeded Armais for four years and one month; 
and then came Rameses for one year and four months ; after him 
came Armeses Mia mo n for sixty-six years and two months ; after him 
Amenophis for nineteen years and six months ; after him Sethosis 
and Rameses, who had an army of horse and a naval force. This 
king appointed his brother Armais to be his deputy over Egypt, 
etc., as above. 

As to the Time of Rameses II. 

In regard to the time of our Rameses II., who was called by 
some Mares, who or one of his sons has been understood as 
Tuthmosis III. and who with his son and successor appears to 
have created the Rameseum, called also the Memnonium after his 
son name Amenophis, I may remark that in an unpublished com- 
mentary upon the Almagest of Ptolemy by Theon, an Alexandrian 
scientist at the close of the 4th century of our era, which has been 
hitherto deemed a very trustworthy authority, there is the following 
passage : " If we compute the years from Menophres to the end of 
the Augustan era, we get a sum total of 1605 years ; if we add to 
these the 100 j'ears which had elapsed since the beginning of th e 
Diocletian era, we get 1705 years." * The Augustan era in Egypt 



* Larcher, Treatise on Herodotus, 11. 553; 2nd Edition. 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 127 

ended in A. D. 283 ; and the Diocletian era began on the 29th of 
August, 284. Hence the period from Menophres down to the 
close of the Augustan era in Alexandria is . . 1605 years 
of which there passed after the Christian era . 283 " 



leaving 1322 years B. C. 
for Menophres, which name in Africanus is spelled Mencheres, he 
being the seventh ruler of the old 5th dynasty, and stands in the 
place of a son of our Rameses II. In the astronomical subjects 
introduced in the decoration of the Rameseum or Memnoneum, 
erected by this Rameses II. and his son, in the western part of 
Thebes, is the arrangement of the 12 Egyptian months, under their 
usual heads of the three Tetraminies. Between the last month, 
Mesare, and the 1st of Thoth a space is left corresponding, as 
is reasonably supposed, to the five days of the Epact (introduced 
between the end of Mesare, and the beginning of Thoth of the 
ensuing year), and beneath this is the figure of Sothis, representing 
the heliacal rising of that star. This, then, must have occurred at 
the beginning of Thoth or in the middle of the first days of the 
Epact and it serves to indicate the year in which the building was 
erected. And since the canicular period commenced when the 
1st of Thoth fell on the 20th of July, 1322 B. C, we may assign 
this date to Menophres or Mencheres, the son of our Rameses II., 
in whose reign it was completed. This was the man whom 
Wilkinson (mistaking his father for Sesostris the Great) supposed 
to have come to the throne in 1355 B. C. The forms Menophres 
and Mencheres are for Amun-phre and Amnn-chre, the ph and ch 
interchanging, both phre and cheres meaning the Sun or the King. 
This is also exchangeable with the forms Amun-Phthah, Menephthah 
or Amenophis. It appears to me that the derivation of Ptah must 
be P-Theth, meaning " the " revealer, opener, enlightener, and so 
creator. It must be the original of our word patent, the Latin 
root pate, to open, and the Phoenician Pataikoi, meaning the 
Cabiri, in which words the first T of the component Theth is lost 
or understoood to be replaced by P. In the composition of names 
or at least as some names are commonly used, the word Tholh is 
often found in an abbreviated form, thus Manetho is for Amunthoth 
or Thothmes. The statue of the ram was one of the chief adorn- 
ments to the temple of Amun at Thebes. This might suggest the 
word ram as a formation of the word Amun. If then we prefix R 



128 HYKSOS EMPIRE. 

or Ea to Amun, in its root form, that is, Baam, and add on Phis, 
which equals Seph or Seth, etc., we have Bamphis or Barneses and 
so Amenophis, might by some ancient Egyptian historians have 
been written Bamenophis and so by abbreviation Bemphis, as in 
Diodorus. Memphis is a form of this last name, while Thebes is 
Tep (Tvpho) which equals ap-ep and Seth for Teth. One of the 
best known meanings of both the forms Amun and Seth is a pillar, 
and they both being of like meaning are often compounded together 
as in Amenseth or Sethamun, which is exchangeable again with 
Thothmes. The Latin root am, I love, and the English root am, 
meaning to be, to live, is the same with the Egyptian root am in 
Amun, which means the self-existent, he who lives an d loves, which 
last two words are variations of each other, for to love truly is 
realy to live. 

Now, as to our quotation from Josephus relating to a Middle or 
Hyksos empire, he notices that the Shepherds, an ignoble race, 
coming from the eastern parts succeeded in overrunning Egypt 
and in putting themselves in possession of the government at a 
time when one, whom he calls Timaeos, was king. This name, as 
in Josephus, I would understand as for Tethmosis, which, as accord- 
ing to Lepsius, from the inscriptions, is spelled Ttms. Josephus 
would, of course, throw off one T and spell it Timaios, as in the 
ordinary Greek. The name evidently refers in this case to the chief 
of the 18th dynasty ; but he does not appear to have lost the govern- 
ment of Egypt to any invading force ; for he and his descendants 
continued in its possession for thirty eight reigns. 

Josephus and Africanus, both speaking of six particular Shep- 
herd kings would, at once, in the circumstances, suggest to the 
mind that this 18th dynasty, consisting of just six generations t 
were the Shepherd kings whose first dynasty consisted of exactly 
six generations. 

The following is the direct line of the generations of the 18th 
dynasty from Lepsius' Genealogy. I give herein only one repre- 
sentative of each generation : — 

Aahmes — Nefruari 

Thothmes I son 

Thothmes III son 

Amenhept II son 

Thothmes IV son 

Amenhept III son 

Her, son 

dies without male issue 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGTPT. 129 

1C25 — 1410 B. C. equals 215 years, making about 31 years for a 
generation. Prof. Lepsius, while not allowing to these seven the 
average length of life of 31 1-2 years, has yet done better than 
Africanus who allowed to them and the next dynasty only about 
half the number of years they reigned. Here there are six genera- 
tions, besides the father, which would be counted seven, and this 
was the reason, doubtless, that while the two writers above men- 
tioned reckoned six generations of Shepherd kings in the start, 
Syncellus, in his Laterculus, gives the number as seven. The 
significancy of Lepsius' discovery that the duration of this 
dynasty of seven generations (compare the seven days of the week 
and of creation) he might have still further strengthened in proof 
of the literality of the Biblical narrative, by telling us that the 
name Aahmes, standing at the head of the genealogy, is exchange- 
able with our English name James and with the Hebrew Jacob. 
How long then, are we going to hesitate before accepting this 18th 
dynasty as that of the Shepherd kings, so called, of Egypt and 
the patriarch Jacob as their chief? But according to the Scriptural 
narrative, Jacob lived only seventeen years in Egypt, he being 130 
years old when he immigrated to that country ; and, according to 
Eusebius, the Exodus of the Israelites under Moses took place in 
the reign of Amenophis IV., whom he calls Achchencherses, the 
brother of Her or Horus. Thus, you can reckon about two half 
generations off the seven, for the sixth generation, as a matter of 
course, departed from Egypt in the prime of life, thus leaving six 
generations in all for dominancy and sojourn in Egypt. It may 
strengthen the idea of our Hebrew or Shepherd dominancy in this 
18th djmasty to further reflect upon how Josephus tells us they 
came into possession of the government, that is, they overran 
Egypt and took possession of the government of the whole 
country without having had to fight a battle. Must there not have 
been some miraculous agency in their introduction to the adminis- 
tration? But somehow it appears to me, after taking pains to 
read this narrative over in the Greek, that it is not susceptible of 
such literal interpretation as at first sight a person might think it 
was. And according to Josephus not only did those Shepherds 
come into possession of the government without having had to 
risk a battle, but after they had administered the government for, 
according to Josephus, seven or eight centuries, and according to 
Lepsius, 215 years, they manage it so as that they are able to 

9— c 



130 HYKSOS KINGS. 

leave the country (after having been entertained in the city of 
Avaris for a while) without having had to fight a battle with those 
who caused their departure. The whole affair, indeed, appears 
miraculous and providential for the Hebrew pastors. 

The ancient Egyptians certainly had an understanding of some 
kind as to a race they called, Hyksos. But in regard to the par- 
ticular Shepherd Kings that are specified by the Epitomists of 
Manetho, Josephus, etc., some of them specify six, Eusebius, four, 
Syncellus, seven. They differ likewise as to the forms of the names 
they give them. This, however, should not be taken as counting 
for anything against the real men who might be represented by those 
variformed names, that is, supposing the names, such as they were, 
to have stood for real men. It is, however, pretty plain that they 
did stand for real men and that the whole narrative, varying as it 
is, is susceptible of an interpretation. As 1 have intimated before 
the Scriptural narrative may be thought to imply that the race of 
Mizraim ( Menes ) was Asiatic, being descendants of Noah : conse- 
quently they were Scuthic ot the Shepherd, or Nomadic kind. The 
languages of Egypt, and all the northern nations of Africa, and 
even of Ethiopia, distinctly point to a very ancient Asiatic origin. 
The languages of Africa and Asia must, of course, have been always 
reciprocal, but what I have now stated is the simple expression of 
a broad truth. While the African and Asiatic nations could in all 
ages have made their wants known to each other by means of in- 
terpreters, yet it is well known to philologists that the ancient 
Chaldaean and Egyptian were a common language in the far distant 
past; or it may be expressed better, perhaps, in this way, that 
these two languages, namely the Chaldaean and Egyptian, were but 
variations of the same ancient original language ; and descending to 
identity of language we arrive at identity of the people who speak 
it. If I should say the language and civilization of the ancient 
Nimrodic empire were in the days of that mighty hunter those of 
the Nile's valley, and of Ethiopia, I would simply thus indicate my 
idea of the antiquity of the race and language spoken of. If the 
race of Aahmes or Menes were the Hyksos who were in power in 
Egypt at an early day yet it may not have been so early as has been 
thought by some. 

Now, the list of Eratosthenes, being plainly that of our 18th, 
19th and 20th dynasties, or of what is to be understood as the old 
Empire of Menes, then the limit of the list of Eratosthenes in years 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EOYPT. 131 

is the limit of the sum of the years of those three dynasties or of the 
Empire of Menes, so called. But while in Africanus the sum of 
the largest number of years given for those three dynasties named 
is only (263+224+135=) 622 years; in Eratosthenes the sum 
given for his list of 38 names for the same time is 1076 years. 
If, then, we add to this number of Eratosthenes the sums of the 
years given in Africanus to the dynasties from the 21st to the 30th, 
both inclusive, and then add to this the number of years from the 
end of the 30th dynasty to the Christian Era we will see how the 
result will compare with what we got from the computation which 
we entered into further back as to the date of Menes. For the 
dynasties concerned I will take the largest numbers given in 
Africanus, but I do not find that he varies much for the space. 

Yeart. 

Limit of Erastosthenes' list for old Empire 1076 

Africanus' 21st dynasty 130 

« 22nd " 120 

" 23rd " 89 

" 24th " 6 

25th " 40 

26th " 150 

27th " 124 

" 28th " 6 

" 29th " 20 

" 30th " 38 

Sum total from Menes to the 30th dynasty inclusive. . . 1799 
The number of years Before Christ 352 

Date of Menes 2151 B. C. 

A preceding calculation upon the base of Lepsius' termination 
of the 20th dynasty got the date of Menes 2191; upon another cal- 
culation we got it 2130; and here we get it 2151 B. C. I think it 
safe to conclude the date of 2170 B. C, which Prof. Piazzi Smythe 
thought, in his interpretation of the Great Pyramid's markings, 
referred to the founding of that monument, really refers to the 
founding of this Shepherd empire by Menes, Amos or Jacob, 
whatever you call him. But now, while it is evident the epitomists 
curtail by over one-third the number of years really due to their 



132 HYKSOS. 

18th, 19th and 20th dynasties, as is shown by the figures Eratos- 
thenes gives for the same period, yet I see no good reason under- 
lying why the figures for the dynasties given by Af ricanus from 
the 21st to the 30th inclusive, as above, sho uld not be very nearly 
correct, since we know the representation given, such as it is, of 
those three dynasties named, is simply a fragmentary and obscured 
representation of all that preceded it, introduced here for the pur- 
pose of confusing the mind and thus supporting a certain historico- 
theological hypothesis in regard to a certain well-known national 
theocratic system. If, therefore, this such representation of the 
three dynasties named, and for such a purpose as that named, were 
an achievement of monkish skill or ingenuity, it would be naturally 
supposed by its inventors to answer the general purpose intended, 
not only with the comparatively ignorant masses of readers, but 
with a large body of the intelligent, who generally are disposed to 
take what they find in books for granted without entering into 
criticisms. I say it would be supposed by them to answer the 
purpose they had in view without their necessarily obscuring or 
mutilating any dyuasty after the three named. 

But if people would proceed on the basis which the calculation 
of Africanus would be thought from its surface appearance to im- 
ply, namely, that the Hyksos were a different race from that of 
Menes, and thus allow the duration of the sojourn of the Hyksos 
in Egypt to have been that which Africanus ascribes to that race, 
then they should have for a Hyksos Middle Empire: — 

518 years for sole reign of the Hyksos; 

151 " of rule divided with the Thebans ; 

126 " of the 18th dynasty, so-called; 
Making a total of 795 years until the time of the departure of the 
Shepherds from Avaris. This, supposing with Josephus the Hyk- 
sos to have been Hebrews of the stock of Jacob, would leave that 
people to have sojourned in Egypt for 795 years after the death of 
Joseph, or 815 years after the immigration of Jacob to Egypt. 
This would make one patriarchal, cosmic year of 600 solar years 
plus 215 years, or 195 after Joseph's death. 

If, however, they were disposed to take in preference to the fore- 
going, the calculations of Eusebius and give to four Phoenician 
Shepherd Kings, 103 years of the 17th dyuasty, the first of which 
Kings, Salatis (the viceroy), it would be well for them to suppose 
(and thus help out Wilkinson) was the patriarch Joseph, then they 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 133 

should have by putting the departure of the Shepherds in the very 
early part of the reign of Tuthmosis III and thus taking 112 years* 
instead of, as before, 126 of the 18th dynasty, they should have 
thus, I say, for the duration of the sojourn of the Hyksos or 
Phoenician-Israelites in Egypt, just 215 years (103 + 112 = 215). 
This last position might be thought by some to be without support, 
outside of Eusebius, that is, considering the 18th dynasty as aside 
from the Shepherds, and as strictly containing the first dynasty of 
the empire of Menes; but, on the other hand, there has been so 
much confusion introduced into the narrative and so much that 
ended to obscure the subject of the history, that some, through at 
misunderstanding, thought Eusebius' position derived support from 
the statement of Diodorus, namely, that between his Mendes, or 
Mares, and his Ketes, or Ketna, there intervened a period of 
anarchy of five generations. This statement refers to the time of 
the parallel lines of the 2d and 3d dynasties, so-called, and to the 
space of that time in my list, beginning with Amenophis IV., called 
elsewhere Akencheres, No. 12, and ending with the undoubted 
unity of the kingdom under Rameses, the .Great, No. 20, who was 
the Ketes, or Sethos Diodorus referred to, and was about of the 
fifth or sixth generation in male line of the 2nd dynasty, beginning 
with the name Tlas, corresponding to the No. 12 of my list. But 
the Mendes Diodorus referred to was Amen-des, that is, Atnen-Seth> 
or Seph, which is Amenophis III., No. 10 of my list, the father of 
Amenophis IV. 

The number of 215 years is the limit given by the Septuagint to 
the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt and is included in my compu- 
tation found near the end of my 2nd volume of three complete pa- 
triai-chal cosmic years from the creation to Christ. If in my last 
computation of the time of Eusebius' four Phoenician Shepherds 
I took from the 18th dynasty 106 instead of 126 years, I then 
would have 195 years for the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt, 
but this would be for the period after the death of Joseph. From 
the immigration of Jacob to the death of Joseph my reckoning is 
20 years, and, as you know, the sojourn in Egypt is usually reckoned 
from the immigration of Jacob at 215 years. 

Considering what has been said both by Hebrew and Christian 
writers as to the exodus in the period of those six generations be- 
tween the first of the 18th dynasty, so called, and Amenophis III. 
inclusive, a person would naturally suppose the Hebrews were in 



134 OLD TYRE. 

some way connected with the 18th dynasty. Africanus, for instance, 
puts Moses and the Exodus in the reign of Amosis, who is Menes. 

Josephus, who identities his Hebrew people with the Hyksos, 
puts it in the same reign but gives the King the form of name 
Tethmosis instead of Amosis. Eusebius, on the other hand, puts 
Moses and the Exodus in the time of Amenophis IV., the brother 
of Horus, the 11th reign in succession from Amosis, or the 5th 
after Tethmosis III., in whose reign, as according to Bunsen, the 
Shepherds left Egypt. 

It is seen, therefore, these writers are much disagreed as to the 
particular time the Exodus took place ; and Bunsen's supposing it 
to have taken place after the interval of 215 years of bondage 
from the departure of the Shepherds, or in the reign of Mencheres 
or Menophres, the son of Rameses II., as seen above, might in the 
judgment of some imply that the 18th, so called, Egyptian dynasty 
were the people from whom the Hebrews, Tyrians, and all those 
kindred peoples and languages derived their origin. This, then, 
brings us to a digression which may ultimately throw some light 
upon this subject. 

The great antiquity which the Egyptian priests assigned to Her- 
cules furnished Herodotus with matter for reflection; for if this 
were true how could he have been the son of Alcmena, whose age 
he thought he knew perfectly well. He resolved, therefore, to in- 
vestigate the subject to the extent of his ability and did so with 
his usual perseverance and ingenuity, as he tells us in the following 
words: "Now being anxious to obtain as clear an insight as pos- 
sible into these matters I embarked on board a ship bound for 
Tyre, in Phoenicia, where I heard there was a temple sacred to 
Hercules." (II. 43, 44). Arrived there he enters into a conver- 
sation with the priests of the temple of Melkarth as to its date and 
was informed by them that " it was as old as the building of Tyre, 
and that Tyre had been inhabited for two thousand three hundred 
years." Herodotus' visit to Egpyt is given variously at 445 to 
460 B. C, if therefore we take the first date, which is that most 
generally adopted, we shall have for the building of Old Tyre and 
its Temple 2300+445=2745 B. C. 

Now, if it should turn out that the immigration of Abraham from 
Chaldaea into Canaan as well as the physical phenomena at the 
Dead Sea by which the cities of the plain are said to have been de- 
stroyed, if it should turn out, I say, that these accounts we have in 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 135 

the Bible could be supported by history this might furnish a satis- 
factory explanation as to who the people were who built Old Tyre 
and its Temple and as to who the Hyksos were who settled Egypt, 
say, at some date from 2100 to 2300 B. C. 

We are now, therefore, for the first time gotten into a position 
wherein we can understand and apply a tradition transmitted by 
Justin Martyr, which like the traditions generally in his 18th book, 
we have reason to believe, was derived from good Phoenician au- 
thorities. He says (XVIII, 3) : " The Tyrian people were akin to 
the Phoenicians, who being visited by an earthquake left their homes 
and settled, first, on the Assyrian Lake, from whence they moved 
to the sea coast, where they built a city, to which they gave the name 
of Sidou, owing to the abundance of fish ; for in Phoenician, Sidon 
signifies fish." Sidon means literally the place of fishermen not fish. 
The Assyrian Lake or Assyrium Stagnum spoken of here does not re- 
fer to the Sea of Galilee but to the Dead Sea. The people who lived 
around it were called Edom or Adam, or, with the prefix, Cadam or 
Sodom of which name, Edom, Phoinike is an exact equivalent. It 
signifies, as to color, red. The passage means that the Tyrians, who 
were of the race of the Phoenicians, having left their homes, the former 
cities of the plain, they settled first nearer the Dead Sea, from whence 
they moved to the sea coast and built the celebrated cities of Tyre and 
Sidon. Or if this did not refer to the disruption spoken of in the 
Airyan books which caused the removal of that people from the 
primeval land would it be likely to refer to a disruption of later 
date in southern Chaldaea, which caused the removal of the Phoe- 
nicians to the neighborhood of the Red Sea? This last hypothesis 
would rather better agree with the account of the migration of Abra- 
ham which takes in in its course not only Canaan but Edom and 
Philistia and Egypt. I do not see anything recorded in Berosus' 
history relating to an earthquake in the provinces of Chaldaea, his 
records being brief and relating mostly to the Kings; but in the 
Bible, we have the account of the destruction of the cities of the 
plain," "by fire and brimstone from the Lord out or heaven," (Gen. 
XIX. 24) in one of which cities Abraham's brother's son Lot had 
been residing. Not long, therefore, after the migration of Abraham 
to the west of the Euphrates the Edomites were driven away by an 
earthquake from the reigion of the Syrian inland sea, the original for- 
mation of which apparently by a subsidence of the ground below 
the level of the ocean is a phenomenon pertaining to the Edomite 



136 ABRAHAM AND MENES. 

or pre-Adamite world. History, howewer, gives an account of an 
earlier migration from the Upper Euphrates, and Armenia, to those 
countries. Alexander Polyhistor, the learned freeman and intimate 
friend of Sylla (In Euseb. Praep. Evang. IX. 19) quotes the fol- 
lowing out of a work of one his contemporaries, Apollonious Molon 
or Melon, a native of Caria, held in high estimation at Rome, but, as 
we learn from Josephus, hostile to the Jews, as follows: " Man (i.e- 
Adam or Edoin) was driven with his sons after the flood by the in. 
habitants of the country from their home in Armenia and they 
gradually moved on through the sandy regions to the then uninhab- 
ited mountainous district of Syria. This took place three gener- 
ations prior to Abraham the Wise, whose name signifies Father's 
Friend. He had two sons, one by an Egyptian wife, the patriarch 
of the twelve Arab princes, the other named Laughter (A/»?) by 
a native woman. Laughter had eleven sons; and a twelfth, Joseph, 
from whom the third (of the Patriarchs) Moses is descended." 
Joseph is here ascribed as a son to Isaac, but he was only his grand- 
son, and great-grandson to Abraham. Bunsen puts the birth of 
Isaac, and consequently the 100th year of Abraham, in 2854 B. C. 
(Egypt, III. 353). This, considering the date we get for Menes, 
which perhaps, we may now synchronize with the 130th year of 
Jacob or the beginning of the 18th dynasty, so called, should be 
according to the figures we get for it about as follows : — 

(Gen. xxi, 5) Age of Abraham at Isaac's birth . . . 100 years. 

(Gen. xxv, 28) " " Isaac " Jacob's "... 
(Gen. xlvii, 5) " " Jacob, as he stands before Pharaoh . 

From Jacob stands before Pharaoh to the 
lOOdth year of Abraham .... 
The date we get for Menes 2 

The lOOdrth year of Abraham 2360 

Now, first, supposing, for the sake of illustration, our patriarch 
Jacob to have been so fortunate as to have attained to the throne 
of Egypt on his immigration to that country with his company of 
Shepherds and their families when he was in the 130th year of his 
age ; and, secondly, that he was identical with our Aahrnes (James 
or Jacob) the chief of the 18th dynasty so called, then we may 
probably conclude that he reigned the seventeen years which re- 
mained of his life as king over Egypt. He then would be identical 
with our Menes, a name which probably would be pronounced in 



n^ 



60 


fi 






130 


ii 






190 


it 






170 


ii 


B. 


C. 


360 


it 


B. 


C. 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORT OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 137 

the ancient Egyptian somewhat as the Gaelic Seamus, English 
James, for which Jacob. This Menes, then, would not be the Miz- 
raim who was grandson to Noah, but of the 10th generation farther 
down in time, which, reckoning at the rate of 33^ years to a gen- 
eration, would make the first Mizraim or Menes to have lived in 
2503 B. C, approximately; for 2170 B. C, the date of our 
Aahmes — Menes, plus 333 years the time of 10 generations, ac- 
cording to the ordinary reckoning, makes 2503 B. C, for the date 
of Mizraim, the son of Chem, the son of Noah. This is all, as 
said, for the sake of illustration, for some suppose the duration of 
human life and so the average length of a generation to have been 
much greater among the ancients than in the really historic ages it 
is found to be; and so the date of Mizraim, the grandson of Noah, 
cannot be spoken of with any degree of certainty. 

Although the Scriptures represent Abraham as visiting Egypt and 
sojourning therein for a time with his wife Sarah they yet do not 
intimate that he planted any colony there ; but if he did it would 
be naturally under a son of his and so would have been, at the end, 
of one generation longer sojourn in Egypt than the colony planted 
by Jacob. Abraham was, of course, of the Shepherd race, and we 
seem to get in the Bible the historic idea of his grandson Jacob 
and his great-grandson Joseph having planted a colony of their 
people iu Egypt, a colony which attained even in the first genera- 
tion of their sojourn to great power and importance in the state. 
Do you say that Menes came from the eastern parts into Egypt ? 
Then so did Jacob and his son Joseph, both of whose remains the 
Scriptures inform us were finally interred in their native Canaan. 

In regard to the above quotation of Polyhistor from Molo, 
Movers identifies the Mountainous district of Syria, mentioned 
therein, with Southern Judaea, the region of Hebron, the home of 
the children of Anak, who built Kirjath-Arba, afterwards called 
Hebron. The Edomities then in the time of Abraham occupied 
not only the country about the Dead Sea, but Canaan to the coast of 
the Mediterranean. In Hebron the Bible places the home of Isaac 
where it represents the birth of Esau and Jacob as having taken 
place ; and in an ancient Phoenician (Gaelic) story concerning this 
family, Rebeka, the wife of Isaac, is styled " the Queen." After 
the time of Jacob, doubtless, some of the Edomites or Phoenicians 
began to be called Israelites. 

Most of the Babylonian and Assyrian dynastic arrowheaded in- 



138 EDOMITIC RACE AND LANGUAGE. 

scriptions hitherto deciphered refer to Southern Babylonia, east 
of the Tigris, that country called Susiana (Cushiana) as being the 
cradle of the ancient sovereignty. To the ruins of the vast 
cities in this region Bawlinson called attention, cities whose 
foundation long antedated ancient Babylon. The oldest 
sacred legend of the Chaldaeans, that pertaining to Oannes, men- 
tioned by Berosus, accords perfectly with this reference in the in- 
scriptions, namely, that the first dawn of civilization was in South- 
ern Babylonia and that the teachers of mankind came from the 
shores of the Persian Gulf and the Bed Sea. 

That Phoenician story, which has been accorded so much credit, 
borrowed by Justin Martyr from Trogus Pompeius, as mentioned 
above, appears, when properly discriminated to be deserving of 
credit: Its historical value consists in the statement " that the 
fathers of the Phoenicians were compelled by an earthquake in the 
region of the Dead Sea to migrate from thence to the coast of the 
Mediterranean. Precisely from the neighborhood of that lake did 
Abraham and Lot depart," says Bunsen. We must, however, take 
care not to confound the occurrence of the phenomena in the vale 
of Siddim (S — Edom) by which some of the cities were over- 
whelmed (doubtless by an enlargement of the Asphalt Lake) with 
the depression of the land and sea surface, which took place in 
primeval times, the consequence of which was the formation of 
a lake whose surface is more than 1,500 feet below that of the 
Mediterranean. The former occurrence is, when compared with 
that last referred to, quite recent. 

The language of Sitlon " the first-born son of Canaan " and that 
of the renowned Tyre the ancient mart and mistress of the com- 
merce of nations, was pure old Hebrew. The old alphabetic 
characters of the language were what are commonly called the 
Phoenician, from which have sprung the Greek and Boman letters ; 
the characters we now call Hebrew are Chaldaean, derived from the 
time of the captivity of the Jews and Phoenicians generally in 
Chaldaea, in which seventy years, if these people did not adopt 
the Chaldaean language they yet adopted the Chaldaean alpha- 
betic characters as a vehicle for their own. Speaking of the 
Etymologise jEgyptiaeas of Ignazis Bossi, where he ascribes 
to the author a considerable degree of merit, Bunsen says 
of him that: "He rests unconsciously on the notion that the 
Coptic is a corrupt Hebrew." But, as he says himself, " all words 



CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 139 

of the Coptic not Greek are Egyptian " it being derived from the 
demotic or language of the people rather than from the hieratic or 
that of the priests of Egypt. A more general research into the 
subject of the origin of languages in general and that of the Egyp- 
tian and Hebrew in particular, than it appears Rossi had accom- 
plished, enabled the former to " take it for granted that more than 
one-third part of the old Egyptian primitive words in the Coptic 
will be found in the Semitic and particularly in Hebrew and about 
one-tenth part in Iranian , " and a closer introduction to the copi- 
ousness of the Coptic, gives a still more important proportion and 
thereby an incontrovertible proof of original unity. For the affi- 
nity extends over two-thirds of the copia verborum known to us," 
which, however, is almost, only from the translation of the Bible 
and the lives of the Saints." (Egypt V. 774-5). As regards the 
mode of reading the old Egyptian language, which was hierogly- 
phical, I find some words are read from right to left, as in Hebrew, 
and some from left to right as in English, according to the indi- 
cations of the hieroglyphs. Sir William Jones found the Iranian, 
or ancient Persian, to have had a near kinship to the Hindoo, 
Ethiopic, ancient Egyptian and Chaldaean. Various were the in- 
dications which satisfied him of the identity of origin of the 
African Ethiopians and Hindoos, among which he mentions the 
style of the architecture and the ancient inscriptions, as well as 
the languages as to root, construction and general analogy. 

The remains which we possess of the ancient Phoenician appear 
in some of their forms more archaic and in some more modern 
than the Hebrew. The Carthaginian colonists who passed over to 
the North of Africa in the 9th century B. C. brought with them 
their mother tongue and preserved its forms in comparative purity 
to the end of their existence as a nation. 

Isaiah (xxiii, 12) calls Tyre " Daughter of Sidon," or a colony 
of old Zidon. Homer speaks of Sidon but does not mention Tyre. 
We learn, on the other hand, from Herodotus that the Sidonians 
themselves were before a colony of islanders, who inhabited the 
entrance to the Persian Gulf opposite the month of the Euphrates. 
To these we must ascribe an antiquity great though indeterminate, 
since it was from them the most ancient cities of the west of Africa 
and of Europe derive their origin. They were indeed, colonies of 
the Hindoo Scuthians who scattered in ancient Chaldea, the seeds of 
knowledge and civilization. They were derived, too, to India, to 



140 EARLY COMMERCE. 

which they gave name, from high Asia and the languages of their 
northern quarters must be to a considerable extent of a common 
stock with the Sanscrit, though variant through time. 

Thus, we learn that navigation must have been perfected in very- 
remote ages since it established a communication between places in 
the far orient and Occident. "By means of the Erythrian colonies," 
saysDuPuis, " composed of Assyrians, Persians, Indians, Arabians 
and Phoenicians, the east communicated its arts and sciences, 
its commercial genius and all the productions of India, Persia and 
Arabia to the West." The best established ancient chronology of 
Greece is that of the war of Troy ; but the people adjacent to the 
Persian Gulf and the islanders of the Erythrean sea had established 
colonies in the western isles of Europe long prior to the age in which 
Agamemnon and Ulysses lived or in which the Argonautic expedition 
is said to have takeu place. 



TWO FOOT-NOTES. 



1. Note in relation to the whole that if Herodotus were correct in saying that 
the only female sovereign among the successive rulers of ancient Egypt was Nitok- 
ris, then Lepsius, and those who have thought with him in this matter must have 
been mistaken in supposing any other of the list of 38 rulers to have been other 
than a male. Considering the number of generations which I concluded there were 
in the 38 successions I, in my proceeding, thought there was no reasonable doabt that 
Lepsius was correct. But I have now to say, in retrospect of the whole, first^that 
about, if not all the names, which he supposed to have been of females, are, as far 
as their forms in the original are concerned, just as applicable to males; and, sec- 
ondly, that so far as the original gives to understand there is no reason why most 
of those names he thought to have been of females should not have been of males. 
Let that matter have been as it may the 38 successions on the throne would repre- 
sent 30 or at the most 31 generations. The matter as to the gender of a few of 
the rulers we can well afford to be easy about, suppose we have properly gotten the 
successions and their respective dates, and as to these, doubtless, time will show 
that we have attained in the foregoing to a closely approximative correctness. 



2. That that the Auritse or Abrahamites were the people who dominated in 
Egypt for somewhat over two centuries prior to Menes I have before intimated or 
given as my understanding. The Auritaj would thus be, if not the stock of 
Menes, yet of the same stock as he. As seen above from Josephus and the Script, 
ures Abraham had many sons besides Ishmael and Isaac and it is more than proba- 



FOOT-NOTES. 141 

ble that the dynasty of the Auritae descended from some other son than either of 
these two. Thus, the incoming of our Menes-Jacob instead of the Auritas would 
be understood as the introduction of a new dynasty, for the distance to the com- 
mon ancestor would have been of eight or nine generations. 

The dynasties directly succeeding to the Auritae, as given in the " Old Egyptian 
Chronicle," particularly as this is set forth in Bryant's Mytholog y, which corre- 
sponded to the old Empire of Menes as this is represented in Era tosthenes' List 
would be as follows : — 

TEARS, 

Cunic, or royal cycle, 15 generations 443 

ltlth dynasty, 8 Tanite kings 190 

17th " 4 Memphite kings 103 

18th " 14 " " 348 

1084 

This gives, in its aggregate, 8 years more than Eratosthenes has for the 
old empire and the aggregate of rulers here is 41, which is 3 more than his number. 
It is seen that this reckoning, beginning as it does' with the 15th dynasty, would find 
only about half the number of dynasties for the Egyptian Empire, from Menea to 
Nectanebo, given in Africanus. This is about as I find it. 




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